Tag Archive for long run

August Memoirs: I’ve got more runs

September 11, 2008 planet3rry 5 comments

Here’s Part Two: I tried keeping the gross stuff to a minimum but I didn’t let it detract from cheap stabs (hehe) at humor.

August 21st: The $20 Run
Terry Run PictureOn Thursday’s, My Lovely and Talented Wife has her weekly meeting and Our Resourceful and Reliable Au Pair has the kids, so that leaves me with free time. Since Tuesday is Terry Day, I use this free time on Thursday to get stuff done around the house (after running). My initial intention was to run in the neighborhood, but My Lovely and Talented Wife suggested that one day I should ride with her to her meeting and then run home. This way we’d have more time together since she doesn’t get home from her meeting until after 8:30pm. I was already to run, so I told her that I would just go with her right then. I got my Road ID, my Driver’s License, $20 and my phone.

Half of the course is run on a road with no shoulder, so I am forced to run in the Right of Way area. It’s commercial zoned area, so there are no sidewalk, just 6′ grassy right of ways. It’s like cross country, except with traffic 5 feet away from you. The other half of the course is on sidewalks and other formed asphlate/concrete surface.

When I got to the intersection of Lovell Road and Parkside (a very busy intersection), I stopped and check my pockets… and what do I find… the plastic bag with the $20 (to protect it from being so sweaty if I bought a drink from a store) was GONE! Somewhere over the 3.1 miles to that point, I lost it. It must have just slipped out and was gone forever. And it was gone forever, I drove my route the next morning with no luck AND I ran the same route the next week and NOTHING. I just that whoever found it had a good time. I speculate that it was dropped near one of the restaurants and it was picked up by a patron and tipped the waitress well. That’s what I am thinking. This area doesn’t have a lot of wanderers, so I don’t think someone needy would have picked it up.

Addendum to August 21st: The $20 Run: Surgery
Well, I left something out on my route ($20) and I picked up something on that run (an infection). Some how, probably some friction of my toes during the run caused some irritation. Instead of going to a blister, it went straight to infection.

All day Friday, I could feel the sore spot on my big toe. It got to the point that it hurt to walk and seeing that I wanted to run on Saturday, that called for drastic measures: Surgery. I broke out my Time Life Book Series – Home Surgeries. During family movie night, I sat down to inspect my foot. It was puffy like a blister, but didn’t have the “excess” skin that is created with the fluid built up. I deemed it time for some exploratory surgery and see just how much pain I could inflict on myself withstand.

As a runner, there are a few tools of the trade that are mutli-purpose tools,namely The Safety Pin. So, I grabbed one of the million that I have a safety pin, disinfected it and starting to do some exploratory data gathering. My first question was… what was causing the soreness? Internal pressure or possible bone breakage (my X-ray machine is on the fritz).

Once you get past the first stab stick, the rest are pretty easy. The first poke wasn’t fruitful, so I made another (what’s that word for impaling, but not impaling?) poke on the other side. Nothing. So what does any good scientist do? Think: What would Mr. Whipple Do? Oh, Squeeze. The external forces exerted on the sore area cause the internal pressure to exceed the integrity of the skin, notably at the poke holes, and like a volcano, I had the first oozing evidence that the source of my pain was indeed an infection.

Not to get too graphic (because I forgot to take pictures), I made more “pressure release” points about 7 in all and squeezed until there was no more juicy juice. My foot felt so much better! but I had to deal with these gaping holes. I put some pharmecutical grade of Melaleuca oil (Tea Tree Oil) and never had a problem or a flare up.

August 26: Long Run #2 with #2… twice
Tuesdays are my typical long run days. I can get 4-5miles in at lunchtime and then fill in the rest of the mileage in the evening. With it being early in the training cycle, the long runs aren’t all that long 8-12 miles, so I can skip the lunchtime runs (and the heat) and just run in the evening.

This day was slated for 12 miles and I had set it up to run 4 at lunch and 8 after work, but because it was so rainy-misty, I pushed everything back to after work. Since I was adjusting my schedule, I thought that I would run on a route that I was pretty comfortable with and close to my office. I made it down to the 3rd Creek/Neyland Greenway Junction and headed out West on the greenway. I decided that I would explore a (new to me) junction at the end of James White Greenway that connects to Morningside Greenway. With this connection, I could really get more mileage in a new place and get a long run of 20+ exclusively on Greenways.

Somewhat early in the run I got that “Do Not Call Phenomenon“. The bad thing for me was that I was far away from any bathroom as I was in the middle of the James White Greenway. The good thing was that I was very secluded on the greenway and there was a patch of overgrowth that I had imagined in my previous runs that 1) Either a Homeless person would live in there or 2) someone from The Mob would ditch a body in there.

But I added a 3rd idea 3) Make-Shift Porta Potty. So, I did my business and it occured to me that I should bring an antibacterial Wet-Wipe. They are small, light-weight and would be very handy right now. So, with that business out of the way, I continued on, feeling MUCH better.

Terry Run PictureI found the connector from the James White Greenway to the Morningside Park fairly easily. Although you have to go through a MAJOR intersection, it’s not very busy and so easy to manage. Morningside Park’s Greenway is really a walking path within the park. I say that because instead of stretch of fairly straight greenway (for running or biking), the greenway hugs the hill, creates a number of curves and has forks that split off from the main path for other parts of the park. So, this greenway’s main focus was for walkers, which is fine in itself, there is nothing wrong with that, it’s just different.

This also happened to be my turn around point for my Westerly run. I was running (approximately) 4miles out to the west, turn around and go back to the car for a total of 8 and then head out East for 2 miles and then back to the car for a total of 12miles.

On the way back, right near the place where I had stopped for a dumpster-doodle, I get a Call from Nature AGAIN. Ugh! You have got to be kidding. But seeing that I was in a good location and that I would never have made it to the nearest real bathroom, I went into the woods for the Second #2. This time, I was prepared and it was a much easier outing. With repetition comes skill – HA!

I head back out on the Greenway and have a decent 12mile run without anymore incidents!

Running: it’s in my blood
I have written before about times that I have donated blood and how much my running has sucked afterwards because of it. I received a postcard in the mail saying that it was time for me to donate again, and I thought, sure, I’ll do that NOW as I was still a number of weeks before my marathons. When I got to Medic, there was a sign out on the front lawn that there was a critical need for blood, so I was extra glad that I was giving that day, as I have O blood, which is the universal donor type.

Donating blood doesn’t stop me from running that day. I learned the hard way, that if I donate blood in the morning, I should not run 13 miles in the afternoon. Since it was Thursday, I did my now normal 6.1miles from My Lovely and Talented Wife’s meeting location to home. My time was slower than my previous run of the same course, but not too far off and I was pretty happy about that.

How Soon I Forget
Terry Run PictureThe last run of August was another run with the Double Stroller and the Kids for a 2.5mile run to the park, a rest time while the kids play and the 2.5mile run back. It’s not an easy run to begin with because 3rd Creek Greenway has a number of hills that aren’t very big, but have decent grade to them. Then there is whole approximate 70 pounds of kids and 30 pounds of Stroller to push around.

How quickly I forgot that I had donated blood when that run that day seemed extra difficult. WHY was I running out of breath so soon and WHY did I feel more tired at the park (turn-around) then I usually do at the finish. Then it occurred… Uh, you gave BLOOD on Thursday Doofus and it’s just Saturday… Saturday Afternoon in 90 degree heat… MO-Ron. Ahhhhhh, yes… that whole “You need blood to carry the oxygen” concept that I learned on School House Rocks! [YouTube Video] so long ago.

So that wraps up my “runs” in August! Of course, now I have September Runs to talk about!

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August Memoirs: I got the runs

September 8, 2008 planet3rry 4 comments

Don’t worry: Despite the fact that I the title might reference poop to some, this post doesn’t… the next one does.

Originally this was going to be one post highlighting my running for August but:

1) I am to longwinded on my descriptions of certain generally gross stuff that I do

2) I keep getting interrupted from my blog to help troubleshoot problems of someone else blog

Therefore, this is Part 1 and as logic would dictate there will be a Part 2 sometime when I can get some time to blog, like at work or something.

I finished August with 69.3 miles, which wasn’t the highest August ever, but still a good amount on mileage. I even busted out a 12 mile run at the end of the month as I move forward in my training for the Rutledge and Flying Monkey Marathons this fall. Let’s take a look at some of my more memorable runs:

August 4th: Treadmill
I got back into the groove of running on the treadmill of all places. I can’t remember the exact reason, but I managed 3 miles despite my last run. I did blog a little bit about this run.

August 7th: Concord Hills
Wanting to take advantage of every opportunity to run, I ran my 5 mile route in the neighborhood. It’s a hilly course and I can tell by my time, in what kind of shape I am in. I finished the course, but my time wasn’t all that great 52:50, when a 49ish would have been a much more encouraging time.

August 9th: The Stroll to Tyson Park
On Saturdays, I either have the kids all day or I have them in the afternoons. Regardless, I take them to Tyson Park and let them play for about 30 minutes until they either soil themselves (The Younger) or start to throw rocks (The Elder). The catch is that we get to the park via 3rd Creek Greenway and the kids are in the double stroller. This isn’t something new. I did the inaugral Worldwide Half Marathon with the kids in the stroller. In fact, I contribute the resistance training of the stroller to my PR time at the Chickamauga Marathon last year. It’s a 5mile course with plenty of shade and hills.

August 16th: Scholar’s Run 5k
5K Road Race 24:58

August 19th: First Long Run
Had my first long run of my marathon training,coming in at 8.2 miles. I explored the new(ish) extension to the 3rd Creek Greenway. A western extension called the Bearden Greenway. It’s pretty darn sweet because when I ran from Volunteer Landing to Farragut in 2001, I had to run on the sidewalks and it SUCKED. So this is a much safer way to make it Northshore, but from here there still is a little work to get to the other West Knoxville Greenways (Weisgarber and Jean Teague)

[ed. okay, here is the end of Part 1]

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Back to the Fact, I’m the Mack

August 6, 2008 planet3rry 6 comments

We made it back from Dallas without incident. I am back at work with most of it under control, so I can move on to more productive things… like blogging.

I do have some content specific posts on our experiences in Dallas, along with pictures, but those blog posts have not been written yet.

Monday started my Fall Marathon Training for the Harpeth Hills Marathon with the stop the week before to the Rutledge Marathon. Huge thanks to Sam for getting me signed up for the Harpeth Hills Marathon right when registration opened up while I was busy in Dallas. All the spots are now filled and registration is closed!

For Monday’s workout, I ran on our treadmill, which was a mind numbing experience. I did make it for the interval, 3 mile workout. Thankfully, my run WAS intervals, so the change in pace was enough to keep me on the treadmill. Not sure how much of the treadmill I will be able to manage, but once a week should be pretty good.

Tuesday was a long run day and I realized that as I was out running that I hadn’t set my paces yet. That is, figure out what my goal marathon pace is going to be and then set my training paces accordingly. I typically use the free pace calculator over at MacMillian to figure out what pace I should be running.

My run yesterday did not fare too well. Not only was I getting back into the longer run distances, I still had to deal with the 90+ degree heat as well. I took water along with me and filled up at the turn around. Despite that, I was pretty dead at the end. See:

stinky

And I made a stir at the Pilot Gas Station because I bought 2 liters of water plus a 20oz of Aquafina water to drink right away. People thought I was crazy to be running at that time of the day. I told them, I could have run at High Noon with no shade. After that, running in the afternoon and in mostly shade didn’t seem so foolish.

So, what’s a boy to do after getting really sweaty during running? Go clothes shopping of course. Well, not really… but sorta. I went on my Terry Day errand run, one of which was to go to Target to check out their selection of Watermelons. Now, I can’t go into Target without scanning the 30%-50%-70% off clothing racks. On the 70% racks, there were some Sport Jackets. Nice Sport Jackets that had light blue stripes, just the same color as the Tech Tee that I ran in earlier that day (I forgot to bring a change of clothes)… I couldn’t resist:

oh... nice

It actually doesn’t look that bad, except my hair looks like I ran 5 miles in 90 degree heat and didn’t comb it afterwards… oh wait.

Now on Wednesday, a cross train (or rest) day, my Quads are a little sore, which is to be expected. I even have some soreness in my Hamstrings as well, that too is not to out of the ordinary. After all, I hadn’t run in 31 days. I am going to pay closer attention to stretching this training cycle and see about improving my flexibility some.

So, it feels SO good to be back in the game… in a training program with a goal to work toward!

I do have more posts (plus pictures) about our trip to Dallas that I still need to write, so hopefully, I will have some quality content for you to read!

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Knoxville Training Long Run #1

November 21, 2005 planet3rry No comments

Welcome again to my running blog, this weekend was a kick-off of sorts as I officially begun an 18 week training program for the 2006 Knoxville Marathon whose second running will be on March 26th. In my previous attempt at an 18 week training program, I swore that I would never ever do that again. It was for the Richmond Marathon that I started an 18 week program, 18 weeks out from the second weekend in November is in July… hot dry, hot, boiling and slightly warm July. I have found, that for me, 16 weeks is works for me, 12 is too little, 18 too much… 16 is Terry's Goldilock's Marathon Training timeline.

We met in the Bi-lo parking lot in sub freezing temperatures for our first group long run, oh, I mean official group long run. In this inaugural training run, there was close to 15-20 people bound up in a variety of running garb to protect themselves from the artic chill that covered the sheltered Third Creek greenway. The training runs were to be separated by “beginner” and “advanced” and with this first meeting, it was hard to distinguish who fell into which group. But that doesn't really matter, we're all going for the same goal.

I was thinking, Chickamauga last week, perhaps the advanced running distance of 10 miles would be a little long, but on the other hand, it's just a recovery run. Perhaps that was my downfall… just a recovery run… because my recovery runs turn into freakin' tempo runs. History did repeat itself and now I wonder if my Thursday speed run (Autumnfest 8k) will be too much of a reach and will I truly be ready for my 5k on December 4th when at 2:21:55 (if it starts on time) my 4 year old 5k PR will fall.

We had a little kick off party before we actually ran. Jason A collected vital information from us, I think to guilt us when we don't show up, nah, probably just to remind us incase we forget that we are running a marathon in a few weeks. There was a great variety of paces that people wanted to run, but it turns out that 4 hour pacer for the marathon, Pete, was going to run 9:00 minute miles. Oooo, that's where I want to be (see, I already forgot it was a recovery run) but I wasn't warm enough to actually start at that pace, also, I had a full bladder.

We finally took off and I began to wonder if I had enough clothes to protect my skin from the elements. I had opted for my Almost Tights in lieu of just shorts. I couldn't remember my Rules of Thumbs on cold weather running. Anyway, I had hat, gloves, LS coolmax, SS cotton shirt, NB climalyte top, Almost tights, compression shorts, coolmax socks and my GT2080 and that did the trip.

For the first 0.5 mile, I was mentally out of running, my bladder was taking too much of my cognitive thinking. I was looking around for a good place for me to sidestep into the brush and relieve myself. Now, I am not too shy about states of nakedness, but, at 7:45 in the cold cold morning… I didn't want anyone in the apartments that border the greenway to decide that I was some sort of perv and call the cops (although I probably could out run them). To my delight, I found the small trail that was sheltered from the apartments, so I could, well, become lighter.

I was now back with Jill B. Jill B's current marathon PR is 6 hours, 27 minutes… her goal is to break 6 hours. More on her in future posts. I had the privilege of running with her for about a quarter mile before I took off in search of the 9:00 min pace group. So, to get up with them, I had to run a sub-9 for a while to get there. After about 20 minutes, out on Tyson Greenway, I caught up with them: Pete, Ann and Angie. And thank goodness because I was getting a small cramp in the stomach and my legs were getting heavy. I was a little out of breathe and it took me about 1/2 mile to get up back to level where I could converse with my fellow runner. We made it to the halfway point right at the 45 minutes or so, Pete was right on target. Sweet!

On the way back, the effects of Chickamauga were taking their toll. Angie was also hurting overall and so I held back with her to get her through the distance. Attending and encouraging her was a distance to the fact that my muscles where being replaced with iron, heavy heavy iron, with rust. Finally we made it back to the parking lot… somewhere around 10 miles, I am recording 10.5, as that is what my software program that I use, USAphotomaps, says it was. There were two Garmins on the course and one said 10.5 and the other 10.2, but neither was with our group (I think), so I will go with what I have. It'll all average out in the end. We did about a 9:00 minute pace

I felt good after the run, but my legs were toast, they were like concrete posts and the drive home did not help either. I think the little stretching helped, but my legs hurt ALL day and night. I used my massager (that should get its own post) to help speed up my recovery and Sunday, they do feel much much better, so… that means that I can run tomorrow. Sweet!

Next week the Long Run venue is at Anchor Park (about 1 mile from my house)!

I got more running Stuff in my head, more on that in the future…

Upcoming Races:
11/24 Autumnfest 8k (Knoxville, TN), Goal time 37:30
12/04 Reindeer Run 5k (Maryville, TN), Goal time 21:55
01/28 Calhoun's 10 miler (Loudon, TN)
02/18 Strawplain's 1/2 marathon (Strawberry Plains, TN)
03/26 Covenant Health 2nd Annual Knoxville Marathon,Goal time 3:59:59
(indicates potential Personal Record for distance)

Life In General ,

first light

June 6, 2005 planet3rry No comments

On Saturday, I decided that I would run in my neighborhood very early in the morning. I didn't make it out very early, nor did I stay in my neighborhood. I ended up running out of my neighborhood and up to Kingston Pike, then up to Old Colony (3 miles) then back down through the high school parking lot, around to the ATM machine where I picked up some loot to take to the yard sales. From there back to my subdivision and then home.

I had wanted to leave at 5:45, right when the first light was out but didn't make it out until 6:15. I decided that I would run for about an hour and that going out on my local long distance course would be much more entertaining than in my subdivision and the UberHill course.

[Begin PSA] If you run alone or even run with people but might be running alone, then you need wear identification. No ifs, ands or buts. In the past, I have used my drivers license with a sticky note with my phone number on it, even if I am in the neighboorhood. About 300 house and only 5 might be able to identify me. Last Spring, I spent the $20 to get a Road ID leg bracelet. It's a velcro bracelet that holds an engraved steel plate that has some limited, but important information. There are different versions, but really is a must. Actually, if you are allergic to anything, you should even run it in races, just incase you aren't conscious to alert medical professionals about any allergies. So there! [End PSA]

So I strapped on my RoadID, my MP3 players (man, I need a new one) and took off. I barely made it a mile when I stepped on something that was like a rock. I tried to dislodge it in stride, but it was in there pretty tight, so I stopped to check it out. Turns out that it was not a rock at all, but a 1/2 inch screw that was in the road. Luckily it didn't punch through the sole of the shoe, but was still rather scary… really need to get an upto date tetanus shot.

I made it out to the turn around point in 24:57 where I stopped and caught my breath. I also found a secluded spot in someone's yard because I had to relieve myself… 'runners: yeah we're a little different.' I made it back to the house in 30:53 with little fanfare other than stopping at the ATM. My whole trip wound up to be 6.6 miles which I covered in 55:50 minutes. Split details are below.

Split Time Pace (Min per Mile)
Mile 3 24:57 8:19
Mile 6.6 30:53 8:35
Total 55:50 8:28

Other good running news is that I might be able to hit the road both Tuesday and Thursday, so we will see. Thursday for sure, but maybe something good on Tuesday. Although the heat has been pretty bad, maybe a jaunt through Concord Park might be in store!

Life In General , ,

6.8 Miles – OH YEAH

April 15, 2005 planet3rry No comments

It finally came to pass… I finally got out to run and boy did I ever. I had an hour and a half to run which would give me time to get back to the car, get my stuff, go shower, go get my tutoring stuff and get to my appointment. I suited up in a coolmax t-shirt that I made as a training shirt for the Virginia Creeper Marathon in 2003. (Much care needs to be used when ironing on the Iron-on tshirt designs onto a “polyester” type Coolmax shirt). Even though the day was fairly warm and comfortable, I still put on a long-sleeved shirt just for precautionary measures.

My plan was to start at the Ag Campus Bridge, hop onto 3rd Creek Greenway and take that to either West hills High School or continue onto the Super Bi-Lo. I hadn't really thought about how far I would go or how long it would take me, I just wanted to run. And of course, I started out a little quickly, my first 0.62 miles was completed in 5:53 which corresponds to a 9:30 min mile. Not bad, that would be marathon pace for me had I ran at Knoxville. I ran through Tyson Park a little faster, closer to a 9:08 min mile and had to stop to rest, that pace was just too fast at this point. After taking the breather, I made it to the turn around point (3.4 mile) at a 9:30 pace. Once at the Bi-lo, my mouth was dry as could be and I stopped for about 4-5 minutes to regain my composure. I took off fast again, a 9:05 pace, but settled into a very comfortable and easy 10:17 pace. I finished the back section of my course in a positive split, but once I started thinking about how far I had gone, I was surprised. Finished 6.8 miles in 1:08:25. I was very happy that I completed the 10k distance without too much turmoil after not running in forever. This workout would put me at a 1hr 2 min 10k (6.2 miles), which is the distance of the Expo 10k in May that I am running in memory of my Grandmother. My goal for that race to run a sub-50, which means that I have to run better than an 8:04 min mile average which I think I can do but doubt that I could touch my 10k PR of 48:06 (2000)

So I know now that I need to focus on my speed work and intervals. I am 6 weeks out and it seems that my body has remembered some of the long distances that I did earlier or else I never would have made it that far yesterday. I have a Sprint Triathlon on the 24th and there is a 5k on May 7th that I want to run to gage how far I have come and how much more training I need to do. Hopefully, I can get back out on the road tomorrow, I would like to run the 5 miles in my neighborhood because I can gage what kind of shape I truly am by how much of the hills I have to walk.

Since on Tuesday/Thursday right now I do not get home until after 10pm, therefore I have no interaction with Eric, so I live vicariously through Jen. The cute stories about Eric yesterday was that he was excited when she came to pick him up from preschool. Eric doesn't usually get excited when someone there is to take him home (not even me). But when he saw her, he pointed and got excited. Also, at home, he came up to Jen gave her a big hug and then gave her a kiss. Very Sweet. I left this morning before he woke up and so when he woke up he was calling for me and started getting upset when I wasn't there.

Today Jen and Eric are going to the Knoxville Zoo with another mom and kid. Tomorrow, Jen has her good friend from Furman, Greg and his wife Jessica from Elijay, Ga coming to see and stay with us. This is good timing because Saturday is our belated birthday for Jen and Solange at the Velas' house. Should be a good time.

I am meeting with Dr. Guess this afternoon to discuss possible working on a paper. So that should be cool.

Upcoming Race: May 24th Trideltathon(800m/6mile/3mile), Knoxville “Color battles Cloth”
Current Mileage for April: 6.8 miles
Total Mileage for 2005: 141.2

Life In General ,

6353

February 7, 2005 planet3rry No comments

Saturday morning I had planed my long run for the marathon training, a nice 22.5 mile trek around the eastern part of West Knoxville, down through downtown then through campus and back. I started a little late around 8:15 instead of 7:30 like I originally had planned. I had three layers of shirts on, one polyester coolmax, one cotton coolmax and one microfiber fleece shirt. In addition, I had on a cool max hat, my knit gloves and some strategically placed bandages to prevent bleeding. The temperature was a balmy 31, fore casted to reach 49 for a daytime high. Because of this, I opted for the runner shorts as opposed to my 'Almost Tights' that I have for cold weather. My rule of Thumb is that if the temperature is in the 30s (or below) then I wear the tights, if not it's shorts. However, since it was going to get warmer, I figured the shorts, which would be cold at first, would be a better choice. So with my MP3 Player cued up and ready, I proceeded to take the leg of the out-and-back heading East. I made it through one song on my MP3 player before the battery ran out!

I had planned running East for the first part of the course, because I would be having to cross Kingston Pike a couple of times on this side of my course. Kingston Pike is the heart of Knoxville or rather a vein/artery because EVERYTHING is off of Kingston Pike. So, I wanted to get across the street with as little traffic as possible.

I made it out to the West End Church of Christ, my turn around point (mile 7) in 1:13:23 (1 hr 13 min). I felt pretty strong at this point, I was warm, but not overheated. I wasn't that hungry, nor was I very thirsty – I only brought some money to buy water at Weigels on the way back. I headed back, stopping at Weigels and made it back to the car (mile 14) in 1:11:52, OOOHHH a negative split. Sweet! I took about six minutes to swap the battery of the MP3 player, drink some water and load up my Carbo gels (Cytomax) which will be the gels offered at the Knoxville marathon. This was the first time that I had used them, so it was an experiment to see if I would have any adverse reaction to them. They are pretty sweet tasting, but no reactions.

I made it through 2 songs before my MP3 player stopped playing. Since MP3 players do not use that much energy to play, I usually use AA from other devices (mainly Eric's toys) that have stopped working, but the batteries still have a little life in them. This way I can get the maximum out of the batteries before they reach the Battery Recycle Heaven. Other than having the earbuds in my ear, not having the music was not much of a problem. Seeing that my current MP3 player only holds about 1 hour of songs, I would have been listening to the same songs over and over. I almost bought an MP3 player this christmas to relieve this problem, but chose not too and now regret it slightly.

When it comes to running for a long time, I do a lot of thinking and about a lot of different things. I think about running, of course, and about what shoes I will need or what I am going to wear at the marathon. I also think about my next few training runs and how fast/long they need to be. I try to also think about things going on in my life and things I need to do. This time I was creating some songs/poetry in my head. I also take the time to pray while I am running, since there are little distractions on my long runs, I can think about those that need my prayers and am able to concentrate on their needs.

I finished the 8.5 mile loop in 1:25 which is a pace faster (10:07) than the earlier legs. So my run went well. I ran the entire distance by myself and was able to survive – during the marathon I will have 999 other marathon runners. My average pace for the 22.5 miles was 10:16, although slower than I would prefer, the negative splits encourages me that I will be able to run faster race day. My legs weren't that sore right afterwards. My legs were getting sore that night and thanks to Jen P they barely hurt on Sunday. Today, I can still tell that I worked out hard on Saturday, but they are in good shape right now.

Eric is talking more and more. He is saying “What's that” when curious about something. Jen has him pointing to her stomach and saying “Baby”. He has a runny nose and we are trying to keep him from getting sick. We tried to get video of him doing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” but he KNOWS what the camera does!

I am on my 10th day of scanning my hard drive, so nothing new on the website yet. I am thinking that I will break down and buy a new hard drive, but I have so much time invested in that hard drive. Even Jen hits “Fix It” when she sees that the pop up window has come up.

Life In General

4 Score and 7 years ago, err, just 10 Days

January 18, 2005 planet3rry No comments

Okay, from my last post, I was a few minutes late to check out and get to Lunch. All was okay though. We sat as a Pink Generator unit at Lunch: Janie & Jody, Kim & Dan, Elba, Carina and Jen & Terry. After lunch we went for the closing session of the debut again by Cheryl Warfield. I have pictures which are still embedded in the camera and have yet to be downloaded. Cheryl is a great speaker and was very motivating to everyone in the audience. We said our goodbyes and hopped in the car to travel to Tallahassee.

Sunday, we traveled to New Orleans via Interstate 10. Nothing of monumental interest during our travels to New Orleans. When we got into the city, I took the wrong exit to the hotel. Well, wrong isn’t the correct word, let’s try inconvenient. For those of you who have not been to the Crescent City, the steets that run primarily North/South are two lanes, but those that run East/West are mainly one-way streets. So, if you miss your turn, you may have to drive around a bit to get to back to where you want to be. As was the case for the HI Express. Once we made it there, we valeted our car and brought up our bags. The room we had overlooked Cardonelet Street, which turns into Bourbon Street on the otherside of Canal. For a Holiday Inn Express it was a spacious room, but that has more to due to the fact that the buildings in NO are quite old and larger than today’s standards. We ended up getting a pizza for the night since the places near us were already closed and we didn’t want to venture out into the city that night. When Jen went to register, I found a Wal-mart close to the convention center and you know you are in New Orleans when the Wal-mart has one whole row dedicated to hard alcohol. Not the mixer, but the actual hard stuff, Beam, Bacardi, etc…

Monday morning we walked to the convention center as to avoid getting the car from valet and thereby being obligated to tip. Not that we do not tip, in fact we feel obligated to tip everytime but we don’t want to handover our money right away. So we walked. Eric was in the backpack carrier that we borrowed from Marty & Solange. He loved being in that thing and it made it much easier for walking around and having two hands free. We dropped Mommy off at the convention center and we went to the aquarium. I also have pictures of the aquarium which are also on the camera still. Eric seemed to enjoy the Aquarium but it was more like a play area for him. I think if was a little older he would like the fish as well. After the aquarium, we went down and around the Riverwalk on the Mighty Mississippi. Jen got a ride home and after me going out to find food and the nearby restuarants had closed, we decided to order a pizza and salad… we are in New Orleans and we are eating pizza and not cajun? For SHAME!

Tuesday we got the car and drove Jen to the convention center. Eric and I went to Melairie to go shopping at a running store that I saw back in 2002. It was boring other than fact that they had some B&W candid pictures of Steve Prefontaine. We didn’t really go anywhere else exciting, but back to the hotel. I suited Eric up in the kid carrier and went to the French Quarter. We walked down Bourbon Street and down to Jackson Square back to Canal and then stopped for lunch. I got the Po’Boy that I had wanted… crawfish to boot. That evening we went to Landry’s Seafood Restaurant for dinner, I had another Po’boy and some Abita, so I had a Lousiana dinner. Jen had Oysters and Eric, well, I forgot… he usually eats off of our plate.

Wednesday, Leadership ended and we made it halfway to Orlando. We stayed at Hampton Inn since they had internet and laundry. We had bought Eric 3 new outfits while in New Orleans because the diapers he had kept leaking (Huggies). Despite that we were out of clean clothes for him. Eric had discovered that if he stuck his hand in his mouth far enough, it would cause him to gag. So the clothes he was wearing had vomit all over them plus his carseat. Thursday, we made it back to Orlando and had a 2 hour delay at the airport before arriving in Knoxville very very late.

Friday, I had to go to work. So, I totally slept through the alarms and arrived late. I would have updated this blog then but I was inundated in American Samoa report work, which is what I should be doing now. Friday night, doesn’t seem like we did anything for the evening. Jen did turn it into a date night by putting in the movie Elf. I feel asleep about halfway into the movie after eating a lot of popcorn.

Saturday, in the morning Marty and I ran a little less than 17 miles for our Knoxville Marathon training. The last 5-6 miles where pretty tough, but also the hilliest part of the course we took. At Panera, I was sad that they got rid of their Cinn-ful Crunch Trio combo, but happy that they brought back their Chocolate Chip bagels. I love chocolate and the thought of chocolate bread was (at one time) replusive, same thing with other bread-like substance such as chocolate pancakes. Call me crazy. Well, I am over that now. I make Chocolate Chip/Peanut Butter pancakes now (thanks Gray and Laurie) and I prefer chocolate chip bagels (thanks Jen P) over everything except for Panera’s Cinnamon Crunch bagel. We went to the Pugh’s for dinner that night. The appetizer consisted of Venison poppers which were jalepeno pepper hulls with venison and cream cheese wrapped in bacon. YUMMY! The main course was venison and chicken soft tacos with all the fixins and desert was pumpkin cheesecake. Eric and William are buddies, so there was plenty of mayhem going on in the house. Jen did have an allergic reaction to the Pugh’s cat and had to take a benadyrll that evening, so we knew that Jen might not wake up early the next morning

Sunday, after church, Jen and I started getting our end of the year finances together and making our Quicken actually reflect more of our accounts today. I started to rip all of our audio CDs so that I would have all of them on the computer. This was something that I had started in May while I was still in school. Lately, I have been wanting to make mixed tapes for the Civic, so I thought that if I could burn a CD that was 45 minutes long, I could make a cassette tape much much easier that way. If all I had to do was drag and drop the songs into a CD then I could just play the CD, hit record and walk away. No more changing out CDs or anything. The problem was to get the CDs into MP3 format. The new computer was fast at ripping the CDs. When I did it while in school, I could get a ripping speed of around 6x faster than recording it real time. So a 6 minute song would take 1 minute to rip. Well, the new compter was ripping CDs at speeds excess of 18x which made ripping a whole CD take about a minute or less.

Monday, Martin Luther King Day, No Work for me. Most of the day was spent getting the finances in order so that we can afford to stay in our house. We are moving to an all (or almost all) Cash basis. The credit cards didn’t get us in trouble but they do make our finances must thinner. So this way we allocate what we spend money on and stick to it. Plus, it will curb all the crap that we buy that ends up cluttering the house. I finished with ripping the CD except for like 5 albums and the CD singles that I have. I am not sure that I will rip those, except for a few CD singles that sound better than the album version. One strange incident on Sunday, while Eric and I went to get gas, two cops pulled into the gas station where I was. I watched them from the Xterra as they were talking with a gentleman inside the store. As luck would have it, the gas station ran out of gas while I was filling the Xterra. I can usually get 16-17 gallons into the Xterra unless it is bone dry. After 8.5 gallons, it stopped, completely. So I went went to go get my receipt from the pay at the pump, but nothing came out. So now I was forced to go inside. As I tried to go inside, the cops were having their conversion right in the door way which made it harder to get around. Nothing exciting happened but it was rather weird.

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Catsup, Ketchup or Catch Up

January 3, 2005 planet3rry No comments

12.23.04 through 12.26.04
We made it through the stomach bug right before Christmas. In fact, I found what turned out to be liquid gold… Propel. As if water wasn’t already healthy, Gatorade, a few years ago, made “fitness water.” you know, water with a little flavor and few minerals, jack up the price and wah-la. [For those of you who read Dilbert, I also buy bags of soil but not bottles of air... yet.] We feared that Jen had become very dehydrated from the stomach bug that she was unable to drink very much. I had gone to Kroger to get some Powerade and while milling around the beverage isle, I saw Propel. Hmmm, I thought, flavored, but not sweet and it’s not carbonated. So, I gambled about $4.5 that these 4 plastic urns would carry the nectar that Jen’s body and Baby Incognito would desire. [Editors Note: Now that is the 2nd trimester, I might changed the name, maybe]

And it turned out to be a success! Propel was what Jen needed. I knew all that schooling would come in handle to make an educated guess. Anyway, on the 23rd, I had to leave work a little earlier than planned so that we wouldn’t leave too late. After all, Eric is handfull these days. We left around 6pm, I had wanted to get through the mountains before dark because I was worried about ice. There was no need. The only thing that was a real problem was Eric’s ears and the change in elevation. We made it to Loris, very very early on the 24th, around 1am or so.

Now the plan at the Palomares household for Christmas is to stay up late until midnight then a frenzy of focused paper tearing commences as you begin to inventory all the loot that you got. We tried to nap Eric a few times during the day since his schedule was all topsy-turvy from the trip.

Eric was a little tired at midnight, but he did enjoy the mayhem around him. He seemed to like ripping the paper, which was evident from back home where he will tear pieces of paper to very small particles.

Christmas morning I ran around Loris in some colder weather. I put on my “almost tights” since it was sooooo cold, in the mid 30s which is arctic for the Beach area. I mapped out my route that I took and found out that I ran 13.8 miles through out town in a time of 2:16. I guess that time is okay, but I was running for 8 minutes and walking for 1 and my pace was only a 9:53 mile. That puts me at a 4:16 marathon which is depressing. I will have to run again today when Jen gets home.

we saw The Jordans (Kip, Joy, Caleb and Rachel) that even which was my first attempt at a pecan pie. I tried to make it with a graham cracker crust and it was a flop. The filling wasn’t that bad, but the crust just sucked. I will have to use my Grandmother’s secret pie crust recipe. Everyone else in household watched a movie.

We went to the new Tanger outlet malls with Mommy P. Our mission was to look for some boots for Jen P. My mission was to go to the Old Navy Outlet and not blow a wad of cash. I only bought one shirt for 6.99, but my weakness was at the GAP outlet. Since Jen has been in Mary Kay, the outward image is important and needless to say, the first chapter of Dr. Phil’s book essentially says the same thing. Oh yeah, and so does the Fly Lady (Sink Reflections). So, I have been trying to also portray a more professional image when I leave the house, as I am a surrogate consultant, but seriously, I am the CEE of the household. That is Chief (because I have some small percentage american indian – blackfoot tribe – in me) Executive (because we have to have important sounding names, I could think of a few fun ones) Encourager (because as a MK husband, that is my biggest contribution that I can make). “My income is your income” – Jen P. So why wouldn’t I want her to be prosperous?? Anyway, I found nice stuff at the Bass Outlet that I really like.

It’s about time for me to pick up Eric, so I have to end this promptly. Jen is at an organizational workshop with some of the other MK directors. We really hope that we can fine tune our systems to be more efficient. We really need to find a babysitter, Eric is currently over at the neighbors who is always so sweet to watch him at the last moment, but it is not fair to her that we rely on her all the time. Although it is nice to be able to walk across the street to get him. Plus we trust her.

Hopefully my next update will be at the home computer… please wifi work this time…

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Saturday Excursions

December 11, 2004 planet3rry No comments

12.11.04 Saturday Excursions
Today was very busy for the whole Higgins family. I woke up to what sounded like Eric throwing up. In the mornings, he has has congestion that drains which causes him to cough. So, I lay in the twilight of snoozing the alarms as Eric is hacking away. He doesn’t really wake up and so I don’t tend to him until 7am or so which is his normal wake up time. yes, he sleeps continuously for 12 hours. Jason Turner my buddy from forever said that his girl Lauren wakes up now mainly because she dreams now. I thought that was very interesting. Anyway, this morning about 6:30 it sounded like Eric cough some and the threw up. Well, he didn’t thank goodness and since I already committed him to wake up, he was up early.

Jen and I are battling a cold, well, I think all three of us are battling a cold of some sort. So, I let Jen sleep until 7:30 because she needed to get up for her Mary Kay Rally. We had gotten everything ready the night before and the food was in the Xterra, but the one thing that was missing was raffle tickets. I had taken some out, but Jen thought they were in there… sorry. Regardless, we got Jen a little late, only 15 minutes, to her rally. Of course 5 minutes after we went there the guests started showing up. Eric and I went to Kroger to get some tissues, since we were out and Eric and i have runny noses, we were in the market for snot rags. Eric and I played at the house for a few hours. Jen got a Christmas Gift/Business Expense – a laptop for her Mary Kay business. It will be her computer. The timing can’t be anymore perfect because I have to use her desktop computer while my computer’s motherboard will be replaced. So, I put some programs on that and started to transfer files

Eric and I then went on to Best Buy to return our phone system. The transaction went well although Best buy is a ZOO! I won’t go back until after Christmas. We went to Bi-Lo to get some First Rally Flowers for Jen. Eric didn’t quite make it back to the house before he was out. As we were passing the parking lot of Jen’s Training Center, she was leaving the parking lot! So we got home at the same time. She was able to share about her successful rally while I got my stuff to run with Marty Velas

Marty and I ran 12 miles along the Alcoa/Maryville Greenway. We had some flooding that we had to negotiate. I wish I had brought my camera because there were some neat water scenes. Other points of interest. We saw two clams, or clam like creatures, one dead fish on the greenway that didn’t stay with the receding water and one sassy crawfish. He was big and would have been great in a Po’ Boy. Marty antagonize him briefly and he stood his ground taking some swipes with his claws at Marty. He let him be, just wishing him well as we left. I had only wanted to do 10 miles since I figured that was about as far as I could go, but we did 12 instead. I hit the wall at mile 9.5, which was close to my estimate. I had to stretch every 0.5 miles after that. Marty was patient with me and we finished in less than 2 hours, including a negative split! My legs are sore and should be sleeping instead of typing this but oh well…

Jen and I saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban this evening at the Dollar-Fifty Theatre. My price. I thought it was good. The new director stayed with the spirit of the first two movies but let allot out from the book. The third book is my favorite book and so i was a little disappointed at what was left out. Jen and I talked about it on the way home, but she did make the point that the books are getting bigger. I would hate to see how long the fifth book’s movie would be. Well, off to bed… maybe.

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