Tag Archive for running

An update longer than 140 Characters

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! FLYING MONKEYS! RUNNERS! HILLS! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!

It’s Race Week, and I have been getting anxious… more than I have in the past (except for 2009 Knoxville Marathon). The Race that I am running is the 4th Annual (A New Hope) Flying Monkey Marathon run in the “rolling” hills of Percy Warner Park just outside of Nashville, Tn. Like any of my marathons, I am very excited about it, but I am holding some reservation on getting too excited. When I get to excited, I get delusions of grandeur and when I get delusions of grandeur, I get stoopid. Usually this comes in the form of “temporarily forgetting” the amount of training that I have completed before a marathon. I have yet to train adequately for ANY of marathons, despite the passion for running them, I find myself not having enough time to get it all in. Sometimes it is that clever avoidance technique that has me miss runs or cut runs down in length. THIS time was supposed to be different. Oh, and it was… just not in a “good” way.

What was supposed to be around a 15-16 week multi-moderate distance (16-18 miles for long runs), ended up being a sporadic shorter distance 5-6 week training plan. With the “Taper” being NO running because of chest congestion issue that I didn’t want to inflame to pneumonia or something in that neighborhood. As of today’s chest x-ray (part of my annual physical exam) my lungs are clear and my symptoms are gone. I am being to believe that my issue was 50% cold and 50% allergies. While I did have a slight sore throat, I never had a fever, but was really tired for a number of days… one of which I slept close to 18 hours. I kept having a cough with some phelghm with little improvement. Last week, I did an overhaul of the kids bedroom, thinking that they were having allergy issues, and I felt better, but I still had the cough.

In running, there are a few Rules of Thumb that most people abide by. One of them is the 10% Rule, which is used for different aspects of running. I don’t necessary follow (but understand the logic and reasoning behind it) the 10% Rule for Weekly Mileage: Thou Shalt not increase weekly mileage by more than 10% of the previous week’s mileage or suffer the wrath of INJURY. I do follow the Sickness Rule… if your cold symptoms are Above the Neck, You Can Run; If Below, Don’t!

Since I still having the cough, I took an Allegy med late Sunday and in a few hours felt much better. Monday, I was feeling MUCH MUCH better, but I still had “The Cough”. On Wednesday (which is yesterday as I type this), I only had times where I felt the need to cough and the volume of phelghm was smaller and smaller. Today, I have only coughed once, with minimal results. Plus, verification from the doctor who not only saw my Chest X-ray, plus listened to my breathing said he couldn’t find anything. So, I feel that I am Free and Clear now. But where does that leave me?

###

Over in the STRAT3GY MARATHON ROOM, the debate on “How to Run the Marathon” is being discussed. There are 3 different methods being debated. The consensus is that it will not “Be Raced” but that leaves the questions, ” How Shall it be Run?”

  1. Race It
  2. Start Running and Hope for the Best
  3. Tortoise and Hare method (Run-Walk)

You might think that this marathon situation is new to the Planet3rry Universe of Running, but you would be mistaken. I have encountered a very similar situation back in 2002. I was on a project in Lake Charles, LA when it went from going okay to “uh-oh”. The tritium clean-up we soon discover would take longer (it ended up being 3 weeks longer) and that left me the opportunity to run the Mardi Gras Marathon. Previous to the Mardi Gras Marathon, I had run the Strawplain Half-Marathon the week before and cumulative mileage for 2002 up to the Mardi Gras Marathon was 40 miles. I was in the “Rest” mode coming off my PR performance at the 2001 Richmond Marathon (November 2001). I was at the Mardi Gras Marathon where I perfected my “Marathon Survival Mode”. I knew that since I had little to no training, plus running with a friend for the first Half of the marathon, but by myself the rest of the way, that I would need to be “Slow and Steady” for the entire race. The course is ridiculously flat. Seriously, the ONLY incline that we went over was a man-made bridge that rose to 10′ or so over a culvert, which we ran over twice. Other than that, it is FLAT! But too much of one thing is not always good. While it was flat, you use the same muscles over and over and over, with no reprieve given from rolling (i.e. gentle) hills. So my deficit in training miles was also amplified from the fact that we were in New Orleans the night before. If there was any carbo-loading, it was from the sugar in the alcohol. Plus, we didn’t get to hotel until later in the evening early morning leaving the amount of sleep to a few hours. But, I one of the maxims that I use is that it is not the Night Before the Race where sleep is important, it’s the ‘Night BEFORE the Night Before’ the Race that counts.

Despite the fact that the Mile 4 water stop was grossly unmanned for the number of runners demanding water, nor the fact that at the Mile 9 water stop, it had either NEVER been staffed or had been abandoned because there were two 6-foot table with packages of cups and two trash cans of liquid for you to “Self-Serve”, I still had a decent first Half-marathon. By Mile 14 I was starving, which means “It’s TOO late for fueling, eat and wish for the best”, I started to succumb to the fatigue and began shifting into my survival mode. At first, it was purposely walking through water stops and food tables to maximize my intake of solids and liquids. At Mile 21, I had shifted into stopping to massage and stretch my legs after each water stop (now a mile apart). Near Mile 24, I had created a simple stretch routine that would give my legs a breather while being quick to perform it. And then at mile 26, I had gone through my Finish Line “procedure/technique” and knew the point where I could go “full throttle” to the Finish Line. My finish time was 4:38:14, which was a surprise to me since I knew that I wasn’t going to “race” it. My original Race Report of the Mardi Gras Marathon can be found here.

Here’s my Mile Split Times from last year’s Flying Monkey Marathon

Miles of (s)miles

I should match this with the Course Elevation Map!

So what does that leave me to believe that I can do? I am not too sure!


Fall is in the air

Today we were on the Hallerin Hilton Hill Morning Show in WNOX 100.3 for a few minutes this morning in support of ASD Athletes! Special thanks to Legacy Firms for allowing us time while they were the broadcasting location for his show this morning. Even Eric Chessen from Autism Fitness was able to share his involvement with ASD Athletes.

I have had Windows 7 on my computer for about 2-3 weeks now. Most of the known universe got Windows 7 this week. Me Likey! There are just a few things that are a little quirky about it, my biggest complaint being that when a new window is created as a result of an action, it doesn’t automatically show up. The Taskbar flashes. I know that there is an option (somewhere) that will remedy my problem.

My biggest issue has been my iRiver ifp895. It’s an archaic item (in the realm of electronics) and while it played well (most of the time) with Windows XP, it does play well with Windows 7. I have the driver file for the iRiver, but it’s not a *.inf file, it is rather the actual *.sys file. Windows 7 completely ignores the file and so I can’t load the device. I say this because my audio from the World Wide Half marathon is there and I am wanting to download it so that I can create the next episode of Gravity@1053′! This is the 3rd audio that I have recorded for this podcast episode, and yet, the audio seems to be outdated before I can get it downloaded. I think that I will be getting a new device, something that is a little more streamlined when it comes to retrieving the audio.

###

I was trying to compile my running log on Thursday, since I had something logged in Buckeye Outdoors, but something not. I am surprised at my HUGE LACK of running this year! It’s ridiculous. I did update the Race Results on my site to reflect through this year. It was somewhere stuck in October of 2008… Wah? I haven’t broken any of my PRs this year, so that info is the same. My next “issue” is resolve my shoe mileage. I currently have 2 different Symmetrys in rotation right now, I have to figure out what the mileage is on them. If I need new running shoes before the Flying Monkey Marathon (Nov 22 2009), I need to start breaking them in now!

###

The leaves are starting to change here and it’s making for some awesome opportunities for me and Stella! Hopefully will be able to get out and about this weekend. I am, if schedule allows, going to do a long run this week… I am looking for something for 15-17 miles. It’s an away game for the Tennessee Volunteers, so that should make getting around town pretty easy. Good luck to all those racing this weekend!

Oh and next week, I think it’s time for a new WordPress theme around these parts!


That which of me, is mine

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a while now and it seems that the days slip on by and nothing was getting written. Over two weeks and no post written on the blog about what I was doing or what was going on. I tried to microblog (facebook and twitter) but it still didn’t quench the thirst of writing. But I couldn’t write because I couldn’t get my thoughts down on paper (real or virtual), not even notes were helping.

Some of the greater episodes of creativity were during the church sermon, while listening to the pastor talk about that week’s theme, I could clear my mind and focus on the concepts that he was speaking about and tie that in with my own life. I had two book ideas come from the sermon and in their infancy, there is not much to say about them at this point. I’ve even started to think of writing a short story, but nothing has formed yet.

I’ve been riding the Knoxville Area Transportation, Knoxville’s public transportation and gazing out of the windows at downtown Knoxville, I think about all the pictures that are there, just waiting to be taken. I just found a way to carry Stella with me while I am taking the bus that allows me to carry the camera bag, but without it being cubersome (to hold). I still don’t have the courage to ask people if I can take their photographs of people that I see out on the street. I have shot a couple of birthday parties this year and I have been entertaining the idea of offering some sort of photography service as a way for extra practice and extra income.

Speaking of income, due to financial restraints and other important events, the trip to Niagra Falls has been put on the shelf. Despite the free registration, the amount of money needed to complete the trip is too much for our budget. So, unless I am handed some large bags of cash, there will be no Niagara Falls International Marathon for me. This means that I need to rerecord the content that I have to use for the next Gravity@1053′. That means that the Flying Monkey Marathon was my next race inked on my calendar. Well, except for the fact that it sold out in 9 hours!

As a former runner, we are giving a link a few days ahead to register before normal registration opens. However, with the way the timing worked, I wouldn’t have the funds to register until August 1st, the day that registration opened. I did not get to a computer that day, and so Sunday night (Aug 2nd), I went to go register and there was no more spots open. After being so excited to run this event for the fall, I can’t… until next year.

This leaves me with two options: Rutledge and Rocket City.

I am not sure that I would run Rutledge again, at least not anytime soon. It wasn’t a bad marathon, I’m just scarred from the condition on race day last year and don’t have a desire to do it. Rocket City is one that I have wanted to do for a while now. It is in mid-December and so training for it would coincide with what is shaping up in our household calendar now. It would count for the state of Alabama. My awesome runner|mommy friend Susan is going to be there and I could run with her. However, it’s 4 hours away and so there is the cost issue that could be the deal breaker in the situation.

of course, I would STILL need to make that training schedule that I have been talking about since June.


Rain or Flood

This week, when it has rained… it has POURED. One of the rains earlier this week lasted about an hour, but it filled up alot of my Hydrogen Dioxide Collection Units. Of course, with lots of rain in the forecast for the week, the only thing that my HDCUs will be good for will be breeding mosquitoes and other unwantables. I had wanted to go outside and look to see some of the drainage issue that my yard has (and it has alot) but as I was getting ready to head out, lightening flash and immediate thunder crash, sooooo, I just went back inside. Today we are expected to get some more wet weather.

Of course, all this wet weather has done NOTHING for my Topsy Turvytm plant. It died. However, the other tomato plants that I had bought, plus the tomato plants that my Father-In-Law planted are doing “marginal”. They seem to have decided to stop growing, despite the rain. I think on my biggest plant there were 2 blooms. Not tomatoes, but blooms. My cucumber plant on the other hand has about 20 blooms and 1 cucumber on it! It’s a very “stout” cucumber. It must be about 4 inches long, but 4 inchs in diameter. I’ll stop there.

I have to admit that this week at work things have been a little more relaxed with the workload. Although I am not back on my usual timeline of getting work done vs. getting Terry-work done, it is getting closer. I added a couple of links to the sidebars of my blog (in case you are ready this via Facebook Notes) and there’s a Geni link that I need to create as well. And if you haven’t already heard or read, I decided to sign-up for Twitter. 3 years of not signing up for Facebook or Twitter and now the circle is complete. And, as you may have guess, “planet3rry” is my ID on Twitter… that’s a no-brainer.

My running schedule is coming along, but still not written yet. I recorded some audio in the P3 Mobile Studio and I talk about that in the next episode of Gravity@1053 which should be out early next week. Perhaps by then, I will have that schedule written! I will be having a Long Run, tentatively planned for Saturday morning, and then maybe a short run on Sunday. And, I think and hope, that the schedule for the summer will be set and I will be able to make plans to work out at lunchtime and then I can add in swimming to my workout diet.

I do have a project on my list to create a HDCU of my own, using some parts around the house and a few other things. I should document the creation and post it… except that sounds a little like work in disguise. I did fix my lapel mic’s abilty to stay attached to my lapel with some good-ole 1980′s MacGvyering, but that was a fairly easy fix.


Virtual Coaching

I’ve been toying with reinstating my world renowned online running coaching thing. Seeing that Mommy Susan is under the tutelage of the AWESOME John “Mile 22″ Ellis and that Sam I Am is out in the South Pacific playing where the palm trees sway, I would say that right now, I have two slots open.

Here’s the Skinny on how my Online Coaching works:
From a Target Race Date, I work backwards to create a customized schedule for your training. And when I say customized, I mean that I ask you specific questions about your daily schedule, what types of running that you like to do, races in your area (I’ll look up ones too), etc. And I add in some flexible times because unless you are a professional athlete (and you wouldn’t be here anyway), life happens sometimes. So we have to make the best of what we are given. Think of it as the LemonAIDE Running Schedule.

During your training program, you can either email me what you did, how it felt, etc or blog about it, or post it on an online training website (might I suggest Buckeye Outdoors?). And you’ll get to pick the inner parts of my brain on running, what to expect, what to do, tricks, improvisation, etc.

How much does it cost? Well, seeing that Susan was my first (at Coaching!) she’ll always get a waiver of goods, no matter how many programs I make for her. So should it be free? I love to do it, but No, it’ would be easy to cast aside and not give it respect if I give it to you for free, even if I wanted to. If you were hiring me as a Statistical Consultant, my current going rate for new clients starts at $75/hr. But running is my passion and so it’s really fun (Stats is just fun) and so for me to shed any responsibility on associating cost with this, I am going to leave it up to the participant. What ever YOU think it is worth, then you can make a donation to my nonprofit organization, ASD Athletes.

When can I start? Anytime really, but expect a logical, realistic goal for the target race. Just send me an email. If you don’t have my email, you can use the Contact Page on the blog.


What Else Do I need to know? I have no idea, it’s 2:28am when I am writing this, so if you have a question that would be beneficial to all those interested, then please Comment and I will reply with an answer.


Running Status: Still no plan developed, no miles ran

I was a fairly interesting week. We had the Tellico Triathlon on June 21st which was a benefit event (of sorts) for ASD Athletes. We ended getting a $1,000 from the event host Race Day Events and the chance to do it again next year! Sah-WEEET-tah! The 2010 edition will be much better since we will have much more time, errrrr A Year, to plan for it.

I went to my my first Asperger’s Support Group this past Sunday… it was a great experience. Lots of interruptions, conversations upon conversations, random facts (usually numerical) blurted out, “That was a joke, right?” was said at least once and just a generally good time NOT having to worry about silly things like eye-contact. It’s held once a month and is sponsored by Breakthrough Corporation, a local non-profit, whose mission is to improve the lives of Adults with autism.

Also last week we submitted a grant proposal for the up and coming ASD Athletes Coach Certification Program. We are working with a guy from New York who works one on one with special needs kids and concentrates in Autism, hence the name of his company… Autism Fitness! We are planning on having the base program up and urnning this fall and it is still in the infancy stages, so there are a lot more details to work through. if you think that you would like to be a founding donor to our certification program, you can donate over at ASD Athletes and make sure you put in the notes that you want to sponsor the Certification Program. We should be hearing any day now on the decision for our 501(c)(3) status as well.

Despite the fact that I have been super busy with ASD Athletes, my athletic endeavors have stagnated. I haven’t run since late May? I am not even sure at this point. My goal is to have the training program for the fall set up either today or tomorrow and officially start training on July 1st.

Glitter Text Generator - http://www.sparklee.com

This JUST in… celebrities are REAL people and are dropping like flies!

In other news, the author of this blog, Terry, has acquired the P3I3 Virus and will be out of commission and touch with the real world for about 12 hours. We are expecting him to be able to blog again sometime on Tuesday June 30th. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused… wait… we apologize for nuthin’! Just suck it up. He’ll be back… eventaully (just like he ALWAYS says)! Signed, I.B. Baboon (Manager of MONK3Y M3DIA a division of planet3rry.com)


Cobwebs

So what’s been going on around the Planet3rry Universe?

Well, ALOT! If anything has been stimulated in the Stimulus Package, it has most definitely been my workload at my 40hr Job! Since I work in a Research Center that centers on the Construction Industry, the Stimulus Package (Recovery.Gov) aka ARRA (or the AARP Stimulus package as misspoke by a few Government Employees). At my job we track Projects… oh crap, I said to much… CLASSIFIED. Nah, not really, I don’t do anything that “COOL” although the past 2 weeks I have been getting my Uber-Geek Swerve on with some Access Database action. Query UP! I created this database because, the Government Agencies that we work with have their panties in a wad have been somewhat anxious about being able to track their time on these project. Enter: Terry. You need Projects… I got Projects… and they’ll cost you a nickel. A NICKEL!!!! Shhhhhh…

In a normal month, I might get a “Special Request” maybe 2 or 3 times… and it’s something that I can turn around fast… if not faster. Well, when I was getting 2 requests a day for this stuff… I had to say WOAH THERE! And call up the National Office for some assistance on making the tracking Global not Terry-Local. I did try to create the database in OpenOffice Base, but I didn’t have the familiarity with Base as I do Access… not that Access and I are kissing cousins or anything. I’ve plundered through it before. So, now, I have a nice little Access dB that is saving me some time. But that time is being sucked up else where….

ASD Athletes! Although we are very fortunate to have the opportunities that we have gotten… they have been SO close together that My Lovely and Talented Wife has up to her eyeballs in stuff to do. In the past, at work… I could “do my work” very easily, but lately I have been going all day long. This week alone, I have had some form of a meeting everyday… and today was the “Super Happy Fun Computer Migration Meeting”… Think Hello Kitty meets Cujo. My Google Reader was pushing 10,000 in the unread column… now some are “deal sites” but still… I haven’t checked my email in a day or two… and ASD Athletes will have Booth Presence at the EXPO 10k this coming up Saturday… which is a GREAT segue for CRAP.

I have yet to mail the Guess My Time, Win Crap contest for the Flying Pig Marathon! It took me about a week, just to get the prizes in a box to try to mail. I now have to get it addressed and mailed. And since I didn’t have it ready, I wasn’t going to have a contest for this coming up weekend. And I am very excited about the race too! Apart from my Crash and Burn or rather Cramp and Burn at the Knoxville Marathon as a pacer, I am going to pace one of former Virtual Friends turned into a Human (I think) Friend and it’s going to be peachy to pace for him to a 10k PR. Did I say “peachy”… huh, funny, because it’s the Illustrious David Peach from Used to be Mexico but now Florida kinda because I am on the road all the time and eventually go to Africa maybe for Missionary Work. That’s right… we are planning on getting Da. Peach to a PR time of… I forgot… I think it’s around an 8:30 pace.

Given the fact that I FINALLY ran for the first time after the marathon this past Tuesday (Do the math… it’s like 16 DAYS!), I was pleased that for 10 miles, a 9:00minutish pace felt great, so I think unless David doesn’t feel peachy on Saturday morning, we are going for it! And if you remember from past Expo Race Reports, this race I run in Memory of: Hunter Biddle (2004), Bernice Varney (2005) and Robert Tripp (2006)… more on that as time will allow in the future.

Oh! and the Planet3rry Marathon Maniac is going INTERNATIONAL! I WON (again, created goes to My Lovely and Talented Wife for filling the entry form out) a free entry into the Niagra Falls INTERNATIONAL Marathon in October. You start in Buffalo (mmmmm, wings) and you end in… that city in Canada that is 26.2 miles away… it might be proper for me to, uh, get the correct city so that I don’t look like sum stoopid ignorint American whose donts knos the cities of the neighbors up north.

Well, I am going to post this and get back to looking at some POT… because I have been so busy, I have not been able to trade POT at all… and the 20 point rise has been… about 20 points of price action that I have missed.


Reestablishing Communication

I am really trying to get back to blogging, but it seems that everytime I try to get there… something comes up! Right now, my 40hr job is super busy because of the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which is sending the agencies that we work with in a frenzy. So, I am here trying to save the world.

I have the Flying Pig race report to write… but I can tell you that my Blogging is more than my running right now! Seriously, not 1 mile since the marathon. I’m already close to being out of marathon shape… Oi! Hopefully, I can get some miles in this week, if the weather holds…

ASD Athletes is Rocking and Rolling… and YOU could be a Race Sponsor. That’s right! We are in charge (and receive) the sponsorship for the Tellico Sprint Triathlon… you know last year, when I overslept. Yeah, that one! Well, RaceDayEvents has made us the race beneficiary. So, Right now, if you sign up to be a sponsor for the Tellico, you get the benefits of being a Tellico Sponsor AND being and ASD Atheles Donor. My Lovely and Talented Wife calls it Double-Dipping. It’s like a Brick Donation (multi-discipline athletes will get the analogy). So go over here and sign up to be a sponsor… or to bring Light and Order to the World, sign up to be a Race Volunteer. Don’t live in Tennessee? Well, we have roads and an airport and the bus comes here. The Race is on June 21st… So BE a Sponsor or a Volunteer but at the very least you can be a participant!

Well, saving the ARRA world calls and I need to go get my data management skillz on.


Saint of the Day

Let me tell you… things have been busy for me. In fact, write now, I am writing this remotely from the Planet3rry Global Headquarters when I should be home by now. Computer work for a friend…

So, I have a lot to catch everyone up on… all 15 readers! One of the big things is that I ran something around a 19 miler on Sunday with decent results. I have YET the time to map out the course, much less add my workout to my Buckeye Outdoor account. Which, for March shows me as doing NOTHING… but that’s only because I haven’t had the time lately because my 40hr Job has been busy. Not to bore you… although I am already getting sleepy over it… is that the Stimulus Package that President Obama sent out has gotten OFCCP – a Federal Agency to do some more monitoring of the federal funds in construction projects (bored, yet?). Guess who sends them a list of projects for them to inspect in their area each month? You guessed it… ME! And guess who name is on the print out report? Yup… Moi! And who has been fielding calls from the San Fran and NYC office this week? Uh-huh! And guess how much I can help them? Little to none! It’s a contractual issue that may be resolved this week or at least in the step in the right direction. Oh, I talked to long about my 40hr Job AHHHHH COOOOOTIES!!!!

So, if you follow me on Facebook (because I don’t do the twitter thingie… although ASD Athletes is there… so technically, I guess I am with a degree or two from twitter) you’ll see that one of my recent status updates is that I ran today (Tuesday) roughly 6 miles and recorded a little bit of audio for Gravity@1053′ (my podcast). Just a 10 month hiatus… and if work will slow down enough, I am changing the format to a more “record and DUMP” format. It’s a Unformatted, Unscripted and slightly edited format. I am thinking about doing an ASD Athletes podcast… or rather My Lovely and Talented Wife suggested it and since I like podcasting, I thought, maybe that’ll get me in the groove… because if you can do one… you can kinda do two with not much difficulty.

I am sure there are other things that I should blog about… but I gotta get home.


Apologies to Richard B. Smith (1901-1935)

Running in a Springtime Waterland

Alarm clock rings, are you listening,
In the lane, street is glistening
A horrible sight,
It rained last tonight.
Running in a Springtime waterland.

Gone away is the snowbird,
Here to stay is a blue bird
He sings a love song,
As I contemplate,
Running in a Springtime waterland.

In the greenway creek, we can cross train by swimming
Then pretend that he is Race Director Brown
He’ll say: Are you Trained?
We’ll say: No man,
But we’re trying to get it done
When it’s dry in town.

Later on, we’ll conspire,
As we surf by the notebook
To face unafraid,
The runs that we’ve made,
Running in a Springtime waterland.

On the trail we can trudge through the mud,
And pretend we’re a thoroughbred at The Downs
We’ll have lots of fun going through the woods,
Pretending we win the Triple Crown.

When it rains, ain’t it irritating,
‘Cause your nose gets a sniffle
We’ll visit and pay, our medical co-pay,
Running in a Springtime waterland.