No Problem… Export old db, Make NEW MySQL database 5.something, Import and I would be good to go.
Except that whole IMPORT thing didn’t work… or at least I didn’t know what check boxes to check/uncheck. Of course needing the internet, this was something I wanted to do here at work, since it was already in the middle of upgrading and I didn’t want to leave all of my readers in suspense on when Planet3rry.com was going to be back online.

So, I did it the old fashion way… by hand. Except in the world of computers… that is the Ol’ Cut N’ Paste. So I opened two windows of phpMYAdmin, one of the old WordPress database and one of the new database. Then take each table from the old database and Export it to SQL code, Go to the new database and run the SQL code which creates the table (and thankfully) and populates the data. I had 29 Tables…

Finally it’s done, the upgrade seem to have took. I don’t have time to fix/upgrade my plugins, because while all of this is going on at my desk at work. The GREAT BLIZZARD OF FRIDAY 3pm is happening right now. Of course, you may think that I am CRAZY for doing all this in the FREAKIN’ BLIZZARD, but this is how I look at it…

Everyone else scattered earlier… they’ll find all the slick spots before I do… and just by the sheer number of people leaving there will be less idiots out on the road when I make it home. Well, according to some, there will be at least one… I do have a contingency plan if I can’t get the car home… I have my running clothes with me!

Go Figure… about 11am the sky cleared up a bit, the rain stopped and it was almost pleasant. And it stayed that way until… OH until the evening! I could have managed that Lunchtime run, BUT (wait, here’s the rest of the story) I didn’t have 1) Shorts or 2) Underwear Incognito (i.e. “shorts”) or 3) Towels because I had “thought” about checking off my list of stuff to restock my workout bag (and car) but I never actually got around to “doing anything about it”.

Today (Friday), I had The Younger with me at work, then with everywhere I needed to take him, I didn’t get back to my desk until 1:30pm. But no worries… I just have a 10miler tomorrow.

That’s right! It’s the annual Calhoun’s 10 miler in Lenoir City, TN! I’ve run this one a couple of times and with a Fall Marathon, it’s typically the first long distance of the year for my Spring Training. Which technically, it will be longest distance so far this year (decade) but I have not figured out what I am going to race this Spring.

I doubt that I will be asked back to the Knoxville Marathon as a pacer, given my CRASH AND BURRRNNNNNN (i.e. DNF) from last year, which means that I will Volunteer somewhere out on the course like I have done in the past. So that means we will have to travel somewhere (not far probably) for a race and if we do that… I want to do a race in a State I have ran before (‘Being Sober’ doesn’t count).

So, I’m going to look at the calendar of 2010 races from Marathon Guide (around 411 of them starting the first weekend of April through end of December) and which ones are candidates and go from there.

But I think in the mean time, I will concentrate on the local races, which will help build for a Late March/Early April marathon at the very least. Calhoun’s 10 miler (now), Strawplains Half Marathon (2-13-10) and Whitestone 30k. Also, there are a number of shorter races that I “can” run, but given they cost money… I might run a few and volunteer at some. That way, I can earn volunteer coupons for Race Entries, KTC items!

“planet3rry Getting ready to do a lunchtime run… MAN it has bem a loooong time! http://tinyurl.com/yd7e58e about 2 hours ago from Tweed”

From my twitter on Tuesday (1/19/2010), I was VERY excited about getting back into the Run-At-Lunch thing that I used to do, but hadn’t in MONTHS. I think sometime November, I ran ONCE at lunch time. So, I was excited to get back out on the streets of the UT Campus and Downtown area for my runs. The lunchtime runs are truly the meat of my running life. I’ll post what my mileage was for 2009, and it was some what of a joke. Some of the mental trash that went on in 2009 carried over into 2010… and it was FINALLY 18 Days that I broke the seal on running in 2010 and today’s lunchtime was the second run of the year (hell, decade for that matter).

And in my second tweet on my running, I commented about my dilemma… a lack of running attire in my workout bag for the run, namely: SHORTS.

“planet3rry So what does a runner do when faced with no running shorts in you workout bag and you can’t exactly run in you work pants? about 2 hours ago from Tweed “

Being rather excited to get out and up to the Aquatic Center, I threw my workout stuff into my backpack and headed out the door. I knew that I should have everything, as I had started to (but only got halfway) organizing my workout bag last week. This time I HAD shoes… so I should be good… right? Wrong.

I got to the Aquatic Center and while I was disrobing, I realized that I couldn’t re-robe myself with running shorts because there were none to be found. WHA? I didn’t have shorts… COME ON NOW! I should have shorts… I mean, I have forgotten socks, towels and shirts before, but SHORTS? Sweatpants… I usually carry sweatpants! Except this time. I’m thinking now, “Oh great, now I have to back to my office and mope around because I forgot stooopid shorts.” Who knew if I had shorts at my desk at this point anyway. I thought that I had them in my bag, but nooooo…

Pants… I could run in my pants. Denim Jeans to be exact. Friends don’t let Friends run in Cotton and surely not Denim. I didn’t have a backup for the pants… and I didn’t want the denim to get wet then heavy, not to mention the stench. Bathing suit! Yes! I could wear my Speedos… they aren’t the European Old Man Cut. They actually have like a 1/4″ inseam so, they are about as long as some of the running shorts out there. And while I would run in them (and have), that is warm weather attire since I run in them when I do a Brick Workout (swim then run).

So what else could I do? Run in my skivvies? Well, not to mention my unmentionables, but I wore a pair of technical skivvies since I knew that I would be running today. While I “could” run in these seeing that they would be the equivalent of the “sports bra”, I did not want the chance of them becoming Running Thongs during the run.

I dug into the depths of my workout bag and I discovered a pair of Boxer-Briefs. Hmmmm, Salvation? They had more fabric real estate than my current skivvies or the Speedos. They were dark-gray which would not stand out as some of the other vibrant under garments that I have. They kinda “looked” like spandex except that the stitching on the backside was not disguised not were they very shiny, but the might work.

I ended up wearing them, with my shirt no tucked. This way, the shirt would cover some of my backside, so unless you were really looking, you wouldn’t see the underwear stitching. Plus, I was hoping that if people were to look, they might just think they were short-short running shorts and I’d be gone down the road. I wasn’t trying to draw attention at this point because this was not a clothing-optional organized race and I didn’t want to violate any pub(l)ic decency laws in the city.

So, I went out to run in my underwear. Things went fine. No unusual honking or whistling or yelling that I noticed. I didn’t go quite as far as I wanted… I ended up going 2.8 miles, which was fine. I tested out some GPS apps on my Palm Pixi, which is my first experience using GPS equipment, so now I get to see how that all worked out.

I’ve made a list of stuff I need to restock my workout bag, but nothing was going to stop me from running at lunchtime.

We very much enjoy being vegetarian vampires. And with our juicer we get 30% MORE juice than leading competitors! But what about the wate/by-product/pulp of the victims? 3 words: Soups, Smoothies and Casseroles! We have been trying number of fruit-vegetable combinations and this leads dorectly to the point of this post, which I am getting to… Eventually.

I’ll save some of our recipe/combinations for later and focus on one fruit, Canteloupe. A nice light and rwfreshing part of the melon family, it makes a nice compliment to any juice. The Younge LOVES canteloupe. Well he like All melon regardless of type. All he requests is that they be cut into near bite-sized pieces… If too big he’ll just cram it in his mouth and if too small, he’ll just take a handful in there. Today we went to the grocery store and picked up a Canteloupe. Given what he ate today as cut fruit, I should have gotten 2, maybe 3.

For afternoon snack he had his first helping of Canteloupe and some strawberries.
“Daddy, can I have some of that fruit-What’s it called again?”
“Canteloupe”
“Yeah! Canteloupe. And strawberries. But no grass… On the strawberries.”
“Okay.” I cut him a couple of pieces and quickly realized it would be wise to go ahead and slice the whole melon, at least into strips which would easy to juice.

Later, he asked for another snack and I felt myself in the middle of a Monty Python sketch…
“Daddy, I want some more, uhhh, stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“I want some more mayonnaise.”
“Some what?”
“More mayonnaise.”
“You want more…. Mayonnaise?”
“Yeah, like we had today, with strawberries with no grass.”
“Ooh, you want some canteloupe.” I said thinking how in the hell the translation between the two. I could find no logical connection…
“Yea, cant-tee-loot”
“Sure,” I replied cutting couple of pieces for him. Not 2 minutes later, I found myself in a strange strange situation.
“Mayonnaise is my FAVORITE!” exclaimed The Younger, cramming in a “Younger” sized morsel in his mouth.
“You mean canteloupe.”
“Yeah, canteloupe!”
When he finished that piece, he asked for some more.
“Daddy can I have some more mayon- What this called again?”
“Canteloupe,” I replied not even pausing with what I was doing… as if mayonnaise and canteloupe were one in the same.
“Yeah. It’s my favorite.”

We will see if it sticks… I do know that The Younger knows that 3 is 3 and not 5.
###
Review of The Younger’s sandwich, a BLT with some canteloupe, coming soon.

Our household has been without internet since September as a way to cut spending. Also at the end of September, we turned off our home phone AND our Cable. Although, we have not totally become TV free in our household, we have made that step to stop the crap that Hollywood can only seem to reproduce time and time again. And if there is anything news worthy, we do have the internet via our mobile phones (My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Palm Pre) and my work. I do now have the Palm Pixi (which I call ‘Pi-11′ to soften the tinkerbell connotations of the phone…. disclaimer: my most recent phone was a pink Katana II, so having a phone that “sounds” girlie is nothing compared to one that “looks” girlie) [uh, where was I], which I can access my email and web and a bunch of other cool stuff that I could only do if: I borrowed My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Pre or be at work.

Now that I am on a forced vacation… December 28 through January 1st, because the University of Tennessee is in its annual “administrative closing” cycle, this meant two things: More Kid Time, Less internet. My BRILLIANT Lovely and Talented Wife suggested that I go to the Library and work “1/2 day” to maintain some normalcy in our household. Both The Elder and The Younger are on their Christmas Holiday Winter Whatever Break and so with everybody home that is just a recipe for Clutter and Chaos. So, a few things had to happen for me to get to the point where I could work 1/2 days. 1) I needed a place to work with Internet Access 2) I needed a place conducive to getting real work done 3) I needed a place that I could work and then when I was done working, I could run. yes, I said RUN. As of me typing this blog entry, I have not run since December 3rd, but there is hope on the way. I need am INTERVENTION from this not running.

The place that satisfied ALL these conditions was the Knox County Public Library… 1) I can get internet access, 60 minutes with a library card, 2) It’s quiet in the library and you can really “buy” anything… but does have some strange personalities that roam through the collections and 3) The Farragut Branch is really close to my house AND adjacent to the Campbell Station Greenway! So, 2 weeks ago, I signed up for my library card… which means that now the The County and The Government is following my every move… wait, don’t they already do that?

Since my “real” work has actually been full of legimate work, thanks American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, I have had little time to do the things that I used to do mainly at work: Blog and Trade (stocks/options). So that is what I have been doing this week… well, when I wasn’t sitting in the waiting room of The Clinic.

Seems that the other day, in one of those simple instances… like putting down a cup of coffee… strange things happen in our world which follows the rules of Physics. Seems that I was able to apply enough Force (F) which was enough to break (coeffiecent of adhesion) the handle of the mug into two (n) pieces which cause one of the pieces to interact with my hand, namely the knuckle of my right hand’s middle finger (FU). Following Newtonic Rules of Motion, it was the ceramic piece which ceased to be in motion once it came into contact with my knuckle. Seems that about an inch (1″) of flesh was enough to stop the ceramic piece’s motion, however, it caused an incision to open in my hand (OWWIE). Noah would have been excited because with the blood, it was like the parting of the Red Sea. (I put the wrong person down, just to check to see if you were reading this… everybody knows that Abraham parted the Red Sea). Being a guy, and previously been certified in Red Cross First Aid, even to the First Responder level, I knew that I needed something… and a beer was not that thing. It was direct Pressure (P), and I applied that in a millisecond (ms) of the cut. At this point, I wasn’t sure of just how big the cut was, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be pretty. My Lovely and Talented Wife was in the next room and hopefully not engrossed too deep in a game of Five or More to hear my body hit the hardwood floor as I bled out.

I made it the Laundry Room, which is also our First Aid Triage Room and our Pharmacy. I was now faced with a dilemma… I couldn’t get the band-aids (please don’t sue me) bandages with one hand incapacitated and the other one engaged in self-preservation. I tried for about 30 seconds, before I called out, “Lovely and Talented Wife, I need your help!”. I was met with an immediate response since I NEVER ask for help, even if getting help is EASIER than the way that I am doing it. So, with the calling for help, she was like a cat hearing the can-opener, except… no tasty treat. Surprisingly we were able to get the bandage on with little problem. There wasn’t much blood, but there was “sinking” of one of the flaps of the skin. I didn’t think that I needed stitches, but still followed (yes, dear) my wife’s request of trying to call the doctor. But given that it was 7:30pm on a Sunday, I had no chance of being seen. That meant, if I wanted stitches, I would need to go to the Emergency Room. Seeing that I 1) I did not have a head injury or 2) a gunshot wound, the chance of being seen in the Emergency Room before Sunrise, was slim to very very very slim. I decided to do my own First Aid handy work and try to survive the night.

Although I was never a Boy Scout but rather watch MacGvyer in the 80s (and had the hair at the time), I was able to fashion a split for my finger using a bandage, prewrap, athletic tape and popsicle sticks. And it worked, just peachy! No duct tape needed (darn!).

The next day, once the kids were up, I had some full frontal reality. In about 10 minutes, they must have hit my finger at least once if not TWICE! (and once was enough). I decided that I would be going to “The Clinic” so that I could get it looked at by a ‘professional’ and see if I really needed stitches. The Clinic didn’t open until 2pm though and I didn’t want to go to my PCP because that place is full of sick people. At least at the clinic, they are doing mainly tests at time of day. After a 2 and 1/2 hour wait at the clinic… I walked out with a metal splint on my finger, which was a nice upgrade to my home-grown splint. All it cost was the price of a co-pay.

### Fast Forward 2 weeks

I guess now I have to play catch up on my blog. The good thing is that I have a smart phone now which makes texting, browsing, etc SOOOO much easier. So, now I still have to figure out my running calendar this year!

2009 Flying Monkey Marathon Race Report

Date 11.22.2009

Location: Percy Warner Park, Antioch TN

Abstract

This was my second consecutive running of this race, and while I was excited about the event, I was grossly undertrained. With low motivation in August, when training was supposed to start, to a sliced heel in September and then in early November, a mysterious chest congestion which produced some amount of phelghm, I hardly was able to train like I wanted, or how I should! Regardless, I was signed up, even pleading after the race had filled up to capacity to be an entrant, so I was going to run the race even if was the death of me. [ed. Note since I am writing this, I did not die, although I would have been nice monkey fodder if they knew my state on the course]. The race was a nice tie-in to our trip to California, we were flying out of Nashville and so we would be in Nashville the day before our flight which, in theory, should make the flight easier for the whole family.

Pre-Race

Having the advantage of running this race previously, I knew when and where the race start would take place. This logistic point would be very important, as when I go to the race site, I had about 4 minutes until race start. We used reward points to stay at our hotel, which was actually the second time that I had used points to stay at a hotel for a race.

At the hotel, I got ready for the race and did most of my pre-race ritual. I tossed my clothes that I was going to use in the race near my race bag. I pinned my gels (4 ACCEL gels 2-Key Lime, 2-Orange) to my shorts. I found that I had to do this the night before, because doing that when you are rushing around doing this leads to getting poked with the safety pins!

Race Morning

There’s always anxiety and anticipation on race morning… and for a while, I had convinced myself that I wasn’t under trained for this race. I was having delusions of grandeur of coming in under my bib number (#438) at 4 hours sub-38 minutes. Then I was distracted with having to get the kids ready to take me to the race. I felt pretty decent about the amount of food that I ate for breakfast… which was mainly oatmeal, but I had saved some chicken for some protein.

Even though we “sorta” knew where the race was, we still used the GPS to get us there. I was getting pretty nervous as the estimated GPS arrival time was getting dangerously close to the race start time… and I had to use the bathroom (just #1).

My Lovely and Talented wife drove me through the parking, up to where the bridge was which connected to the race festivities. I hopped out of the van, said a few quick good-byes and headed to get my stuff.

I somewhere around 4 minutes from the time that I left the van until the race gun went off. I hurried to the registration table, got my goods and my bib number. Being in a state park does hold some advantages. There’s basically hundreds of places to use the bathroom.

The weather wasn’t fore-casted to be all that great, possible rain, but it was surely overcast and the temperature not all that warm… just about perfect for a marathon. The race director was warning us runners (although he is foolish to run as well) of all the hazards of the park and running… so I knew that it would be just a few seconds. And it was, because we were off!

Mile 1 “Who is the more foolish? The fool or the fool that follows?”

I probably had one of the best starts to the marathon that I ever had. I wasn’t shooting off like a rocket, since I wasn’t planning on making any crazy attempts at a course PR. The first ½ to ¾ of a mile is long reprieve of being relatively flat, that probably helped too.

Mile 4 “Battling against that is more like… suicide”

I had another delusion since I had started off so well, that even up the first section of hills, I felt steady in my pace. I knew that the split times would vary from mile to mile, given the hills, but I felt great. At least for the first 8 or 9 miles

Mile 13.1 “Will he finish where he begins?”

As the race started, I decided that I would make race strategy would be to run the first half of the marathon as best as I could, trying to keep a 10:30ish pace. I had even factored in some time buffer time so that my goal time to cross the half-way time would be near 2:30. Then, I would change strategies and switch to the run-walk.

Crossing at 2:34 and knowing that I was past the point where I would be able to hold up my desired pace. I decided to do a 4 minute walk/ 1 minute walk and somehow, I was able to set my watch’s interval timer to do this. So, there I was… 4 minutes run, 1 minute walk and I was still in great spirits even knowing that I would be past 5 hours.

Mile 15 “Curse my blasted circuits, I wasn’t fast enough”

There’s one difficulty with the run-walk method… when you are really hurting, it’s hard to transition from the walk back to the run. I’m not a huge fan of switching from running to slowing down to a walk, especially on a hilly course, because it makes up hills longer and down hills harder on the knees. However, I wasn’t not going to deny myself of any walk breaks… so if I was in “run” mode and came to a water stop, I was walking through to refill my bottle… and if my watch signaled that it was time to walk just after the water stop… oh well.

Mile 20 “I won’t give up! I am not afraid!” “Oh, you will be, you WILL BE!”

The proverbial Wall of Mile 20 had come much earlier, but still there is something special about reaching the 20 mile mark. It’s the end of the warm-up for the 10k that you are running! And while this spot of a marathon has it’s own evil influence over the psyche of runners, I look to a different sci-fi movie as my mantra for Mile 20, The Matrix.

When Neo is finding out if he is “The One” (a similar title that Qui-Gonn Jin heralded Anakin, in The Phantom Menace) , he is an apartment room which children who see to have some special abilities. One of the kids is bending a spoon with their thought which leads to the phrase “There is no spoon”. Hence, at Mile 20, “There is no Wall”.

Mile 22 “The circle is now complete, when I left you I was the apprentice. Now I Am the Master!”

The Mile 22 marker is one of my favorite signs. Double-Deuce! Only 4 miles away… and it’s at this point that you can start to estimate finishing time. I knew that it wasn’t going to be anything to write home about, but still a refreshing sight.

One thing that I hadn’t expected was that I was well hydrated. Despite being deep into the race, I had an urge to use the bathroom that did not go away after a mile or two. Again, I took advantage of being in a State Park.

Mile 24 “Help Me Obi-wan Kenobi, you are my only hope!”

This was probably my worst mile from an attitude point of view. I knew the terrain ahead, I knew how I was feeling and was starting to lose focus on the race. At this point, I was alone on the course, with no runners ahead that I could see. I started to get myself focused on the finish, despite the fact that I wasn’t going to finish with the time that I wanted, I was still going to go through my normal finish ritual.

Mile 25 “The Force is strong with this one”

There’s one volunteer that you pass twice that you enjoy seeing. He gets to see you early and at the end. So when you see him the second time, you know that you are close to the finish line. It also helps

Mile 26 “Echo Base, this is Rogue 2, I found [him]. Repeat, I found [him]

Mile Splits

1 – 10:19

2 – 10:45

3 – 11:46

4 – 12:14

5 – 10:58

6 – 12:41

7 – 10:22

8 – 12:05

9 – 11:16

10 – 12:16

11 – 11:55

12 – 11:58

13 – 14:23

13.1 – 2:34:35

14 – 13:17

15 – 14:00

16 – 11:59

17 – 13:38

18 – 14:37

19 – 12:56

20 – 16:17

21 – 13:52

22 – 13:39

23 – 13:05

24 – 11:22

25 – 11:57

26 – 13:14

26.2 – 5:31:58

I also have the audio version of the race report to edit as well. That is sitting on my iRiver as well… I am such a slacker. GEEZ!

I am not sure how much I will get done. I am going to a free ABA Training workshop here in Knoxville from 1-4pm which means that I will be at work for half-day. Work is the only place that I can get a block of time to do stuff. The Younger is always wanting to “Get on my shoulders” or lately, play Lightsavers Lightsabers. And I know there will be a time when he won’t want to do any of that, because his Old Man is a freaking idiot! I think that is the same time that aliens come an suck out his brain until he is roughly 20 or so. The Elder is wanting me to play the “real” races or games on the Playstation 2. He is more than capable of doing the practice races (for the CARS game) but I think the stress of racing against other competitors is a little much right now. This too will pass and he won’t want me to play for him and I will get stuck off on the sidelines. That is when I will be able to blog more.

Plus, apart from the Race Reports, I do have some other stuff to write about, that well, 140 characters just doesn’t do it justice… so those are in sitting in my Creative Repository until I get some time.

I’ve been listening to B97.5 which is Knoxville’s Official Christmas Radio Station since the beginning of the month. They play Delilah from 7 – midnight and last night was a rerun from earlier in the month, which is the second time that I have heard a rerun of one of her shows. Of course when it comes to traditional commercial radio stations, there is a limited pool of Christmas songs to play. They do make up for it by playing the same Christmas song but from a different artist, but it is Christmas music. I now need to watch A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation as part of the Terry Traditional Christmas. I’ll eventually get to the Black & White Classics too…

Flying Monkeys: I finished the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon in the SLOWEST time ever for a marathon, a 5:31:58. I am not upset with this at ALL. Because you have to remember that I ran this on 11/22/2009 and the last time that I had ran was on 11/06/2009 because of sickness! I was in a good mental (other than being a marathon maniac) form for the entire race, I almost had to be in order to survive. My legs weren’t all that happy with me though… I don’t have the audio recorded yet, but am working on the outline of what I want to say about the marathon.

The day after the marathon, we flew to California (LA Area) for My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Sister’s wedding. We missed our first flight which left the rest of the day to waiting lists and mayhem, but we finally made it to California, after a couple of stops across the country. I was there, not only as part of the wedding family, and that The Younger was the Ring Bearer in the wedding, but I was shooting parts of the wedding events where the “professional” photographer wouldn’t be. There was actually a time where I filled in for the Professional Photographer while he was busy somewhere else. I brought Stella (my Canon DSLR) and AV-1 (1980s 35mm SLR) along with my hand held digital camera. The fun part was being the Interviewer for Melanie-In-Law and Joe-In-Law for a pre-wedding interview. So, I had my camcorder with me as well! I am now in the process of consolidating my pictures along with My Talented and Lovely Wife’s pictures so that I can send the Married Couple their pictures.

Work has been keeping me busy as well. I am in the process of creating another database that looks at ARRA construction and so I have been in the trials and tribulations of getting that worked out as well because on Thursday, I am traveling to Washington DC for work as well, 2 days of workshops. More airplanes…

I do have a race this weekend, the Reindeer Run 5k, this is one of my normal annual runs that I like to do. Usually since it follows a marathon in November, I don’t always run as fast as I “think” I should run it… but the door prizes are usually pretty good. It’s just a matter of winning some of them!

I’m dancing running in the Rain