Tag Archive for weather

Beautiful weather

September 7, 2005 planet3rry No comments

it's in the low 60s at night and mid 80s during the day, what better conditions could you ask for when working out. My goodness!

Today was a swim day. A short swim day at that, I only went 800 meters. I was very happy that they had the pool in the 50 meter configuration which is the Olympic Standard. One it is easier to calculate mileage in your head and Two, you don't have to change directions (something I am bad at) as frequent. So, I ended up doing 16 laps for 800 meters for the day since I didn't think that I would have the stamina to swim much further after a 10 day or so hiatus from swimming. I wasn't too far off. I probably could have done another 200 meters without any problem, but I swam pretty hard the first 400 meters and was tired for the 400. I was able to complete the last 50 meters in 1:04, which would give me a 8:32 Trideltathon 400 meter time. My best time is a 9:23 back in 2002, so to cut off a minute would be excellent.

My legs were a little sore from yesterday's run but not in a bad way. I'll be running again tomorrow but not sure if I am going to run 4 or 5 yet. 5 is awfully nice if I could pull that off during the week.

Life In General ,

Flurries

February 10, 2005 planet3rry No comments

Flurries are what we had today, basically all day with some sunshine mixed in there to melt the snow. Here are some pictures of what it looked like at its peak prettiness.

Don't bother to look for the cool thing that was supposed to happen today. It probably won't happen until friday, maybe saturday.

My computer is still scanning… going on day 14 tomorrow. sigh… to have a computer

For Lent I am giving up Chocolate. I have done this before and it sucks. Well, it is only bad that I choose not to eat it and that it is near Easter when all delicious varieties are available. I think I will have to hoard massive quantities of chocolates for after Easter. One reprieve is that there are guidelines for Lent, that Sundays are days in which you can have/do what you gave. I, personally, think that this is cheating, but in this instance, I might choose to partake of some cocoa bean derivatives on Sunday. I must eat the Cadbury Creme Eggs… I must eat the Cadbury Creme Eggs…

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Rainy Days and Tuesdays

February 8, 2005 planet3rry No comments

It's rainy today and the forecast is not looking better either, snow on Thursday. Good thing for me that a little rain doesn't bother me. I can handle a little rain here and there. Now give me a down pour and NO thunderstorms, that is depressing. Oh course, the snow is exciting, only for the fact that Eric hasn't played in snow yet. So, given that the snow is 2 days away, does not guarentee anything. It might snow, it might not, who the hell knows?

My computer is still scanning, and I am still at 79%, I have a couple hundred clusters to go through before it makes it to 80%, so it will take a while. There are no sales at CompUSA this week, so I can't go out and get a cheap hard drive to replace the piece of crap that I have right now. You do have to realize that even it completes the scan there is no guarantee that Windows will load. Also, I found out that the USB wireless adapter that I bought 1) doesn't work with Windows ME and 2) The rebate didn't have the correct postmark date.

I have the Math lab tonight from 6:30 to 9:30. So far, it has been busy each week and I can only imagine more of the same. At least the cool this is that I will have a spring break as well, but that is in March I believe.

I have been having a voracious appetite the past few days since my long run of 22.5 miles on Saturday. I am eternally hungry and have been eating WAY to many carbs and now weight 167lbs which means that I gained close to 4 pounds since Saturday. I do not know how much to contribute to muscle development, but still…

I will go running today for about an hour, in between work and the Math lab. It would have been nice if I had remembered my towel for the shower. I have a tiny towel that I can use, but it's like 1/2 the size of a regular towel. I guess something is better than nothing.

Life In General ,

Oh my! It's SUNSHINE

February 4, 2005 planet3rry No comments

After all weekend of gloom and doom and even some wetness, we have sunshine today. In fact, it is pretty nice when you are in the sun, but in the shade it is still rather chilly. At the sun is out though. It is supposed to be in the high 50s tomorrow, perhaps even upto 60 degrees.

I have a super duper long run tomorrow. I think that I am going to a 22.5 miler around campus and into east part of Knoxville. I will do an out and back route that will take me into the commercial part of the eastern section of West Knoxville. I'll then take greenways to Volunteer Landing where I will go into downtown and loop around through campus and back on the greenway. I am planning on doing a run/walk combination. I normally do not do this, since I plan on running the marathon until I hit the wall, but during my training, I use this technique to keep my legs as fresh as possible so that they are really working the later miles. This is the technique that I used for Richmond 2001. I ran with Devaney who ran a 14 min pace with a 4/1 walk run. Although the pace was slower than what I train at, I contribute my PR time to running for such a long time (6+ hours). I'll start off trying to run at a 9:00 min pace and walk at a 12-13 minute pace. Since I normally walk at a 14-15 minutes pace, this will keep me moving.

I ran 8 miles yesterday at an average 8:48 pace, which I thought was pretty good for how much I have ran in the last few weeks. I am not even sore today, which was something that I worried about last night since I knew I was running faster than I should be. In fact, at a stoplight, I started running across the street and I could feel my hamstring roll in my leg. Since it was cold, I thought that I might have to stop running for the night and it in the first 0.5 miles! My hamstring did warm up and did not bother me for the rest of the run.

ON my way home today I am going to pick up some Cytomax, which will be the carbo drink/gel sponsor of the marathon. Since I have never tried them before, I am going to get some for the weekend. Hopeful it won't have any ill effects on me.

Life In General ,

Artic Chill

January 24, 2005 planet3rry No comments

It was a pretty nice weekend around here, if you were a penguin. We were told in the late part of last week that we would have a significant snow even com the weekend. The forecast was a bunch of rain on Satuday that would turn into snow over night and snow on Sunday. Well, we did get rain and snow, but in quantities much, much less than predicted. Even though it was gloomy for most of Saturday, we did not get any rain until the afternoon/evening and then it was not that much. The snow came in a light form over night and we received a dusting of snow. It was the dry powdery kind that stuck to the road and not the grass. By noon, everything was about gone, but some kids still got out today… due to icy road conditions.

I ran 6.6 miles on Friday afternoon, at a 8:13 pace, 8:56 pace and a 10 min pace for 3 loops of 2.2 miles respectively. It was the first time that I did a mid distance run at any significant speed and I was pleased at the results even though they were not consistent. Seeing that I was scheduled to run 18 this week and with what was the forecast and other variables, I decided that a run on Friday and Sunday would suffice. I was not sore on Saturday, but took the day off, anticipating that I would get to run on the treadmill on Sunday. I was able to run the 6.6 loop again on Sunday with Marty. We ran the first 2 loops (4.4 miles) at a 9:45 pace and being within 4 seconds of our split times between laps. Our last lap we blazed at a 8:10 min pace. I think that we are going to try to run 9:30-9:45 min miles at the marathon, at least that is our goal right now… we still have 8 weeks.

New England and Philadelphia are playing in the Superbowl. My prediction is that New England will get another throphy. Comparing the two teams, NE has more of a complete package than Philly. If Brady is having a bad game, there are plenty of other people on the NE team who can make plays and offset Brady’s Mistakes. Philly, on the other hand, is more symbioticwith McNabb, in that, when McNabb is playing poorly so does the rest of the team. The both are good perennial teams and we probably should have seen this combination years ago, but now we see some powerhouses go at it. I imagine that Terrell Owens will provide plenty of sound bites leading up to the big game and I hope he gets to play. I do not know his status, but the Superbowl deserves the Super Players. So it should be a good game. Also, if Kelly Clarkson has a wardrobemalfunction, that’ll be sweet but I digress. I also look forward to the commercials just like everyone else… also what is the deal with Nike commercial with the tribal/urban head gear. Urlacher with a square barbed wire helmet? What the…

I look forward to the balmy 30 weather this week…

Life In General, running , , ,

Jack Frost

December 13, 2004 planet3rry No comments

12.13.04 Jack Frost
He is abusing us right now. It is cold outside and it is just frightful, he is eating our noses. Regardless, it is nice to not have any rain and none in the forecast. Woo-Hoo.

Yesterday we put up our outside lights up. Which included icecicles on our driveway barrier wall. Colored lights in some of our bushes and then some white lights, on the ground, bordering the landscaping garden. I will have to try to get a picture at twilight to show the great work we did.

Also yesterday, I started to build a little compost with the intention of creating a garden in the spring. Unfortunately I have little real estate to build a garden. I have the space, it’s just that my backyard is protected by trees and so lighting is a problem. There is one patch that is relatively flat and that will get a couple of hours of mid day sun. That should provided enough for a small garden. I figured that I would start off small and see how it goes. I am starting with a 2×2 plot of compost. I figure for my garden will extend that out some what to accommodate what I want to grow.

My computer is still dead. I need to write to the company to see if I can get a replacement. I found one online that is about $50. In the mean time, I am going to take Jen’s old computer now that she has the laptop and convert it to win XP, then slave the hard drive so that I have access to the files on the computer. I really need to get the pictures of American Samoa and Eric’s pictures. I have a bunch to put up, but they are stranded right now.

My quads are aching right now. I will have to try to run on the treadmill tonight to work the pain out. I am pondering if I am going to break 500 miles for the year. I definitely can if I put my mind to it. My Next official race will be the Calhoun’s 10 miler which my PR for the race is 1:34:40 which works out to be a 9:28 pace.

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At the speed of slow

September 22, 2004 planet3rry No comments

I realized last night that because I tutor on Tuesday Nights, I don’t see Eric from Monday night bed time until wednesday night when I get home. Almost a 48 hour span of time of not seeing the little monster. Allot can happen in 48 hours, so I run the risk of missing some great happening. Of course, being gone all day at work does not increase my odds. Well, someone was a early riser today (6:45am) and I got to see him! YAY! Didn’t get to spend anytime with him, but did get to hold him.

Yesterday, Eric walked in between Jen and Diane, who were about 4 feet apart, about 4 times without falling and apparently screaming with delight. Jen also commented that walking is becoming his preferred mode of transportation, although not extremely proficient at it yet.

I ran 5.75 miles yesterday before my tutor session. Since I was on campus, I decided to go to the Ag campus and follow the Neyland Greenway until a great place to eat called Riverside Tavern. Once I was there, I thought it would be cool to run back through downtown and onto to campus. And yes, it was cool, when I was able to run while in the shadow of a building. Running west in the sunset was killer, I really couldn’t see much because of the sun’s location. I did not have any incidents, so that was fine. When I got back to the car, I realized that I had cruised through the run in 49:04. Today, when I mapped out the mileage, it put me at a 8:32 minutes per mile. That is FAST for me on a training run. I should have ran at a 10:00 minute pace or something around there. If I run too fast, too often then I will cause more damage and ultimately, slow my times down. Thursdays are suppose to be my speed days on the treadmill, where I can regulate my pace.

I did some work on my website today. I finally uploaded a few pages that I had been working on for a long time now. Thanks to Mom and a scanner, I was able to put up some pictures of my aunts and uncles. Also, I was able to move some pictures from our Iowa trip in 2001, to put up family members living there. I did not put up a picture of Chris, just out respect since all I had available at the time was The Cove pictures and I know how much he loves them. You’ll also see that Pete’s side is pretty barren. Well, I do have a few pictures of Uncle Ray, but that is about it. They are also on a different computer, so they are not ready. Hopefully, when Pete reads this, he’ll fill in some of the blanks for me. I also included some of the books that I have recently finished and some that I would like to read. You can find all of this new stuff by clicking the ‘about me’ link in the black header bar at the top of this page.

My home computer is almost ready. I have fixed the sound and have all of my old files off of the other hard drives. So, I should be ready for some Eric Updates by weekend! I know that you can’t wait! I’ll be doing finances and speedwork tonight, so I doubt that I will get to them tonight, but then again you never know.

We are having beautiful weather here in Knoxville. It in the upper 50′s this morning and is in the low-mid 80′s in the afternoon. Cool and just absolutely beautiful. Of course, it won’t last too long, but I am going to enjoy it while I can.

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Gator Madness

September 17, 2004 planet3rry No comments

09/17/04 – Gator Madness
As the game that is played on Saturday night comes closer, the people in Knoxville become more and more crazy. With the weather that we are having, it might be related, but I think that the rivalry between Tennessee and Florida might have something to do with it. If we win, the scruffy little city will be abuzz and a National Championship will be the talk of the town. If not, people will be depressed for a week until the next game. Such is the life of a Tennessee Fan. I was there the last time we won at home (1998) and we are favored by 3 points, so we will see.

Eric is making leaps and bounds, almost literally. More on that later. My computer is almost together, I have to install some software, which I hope to do this weekend. Yesterday, he mimicked me with nodding my head up and down and today he shook his head no. Not sure if he knows what that means, but it can’t be long.

Since the weather is crazy, I am not sure if I will be doing 16 miles tomorrow morning. I hope so, though. If I can get out of the house at 5:30am (yes, that’s early) I can get most of the mileage in the dark. I don’t particularly like running in the dark, but it will make it more comfortable for me plus I’ll have little to no traffic. I swam at the the Athletic Center today at lunch. I think I swam for about 20 minutes and went a little more than half a mile. Pretty slow, but since I have not swam since the Trideltahon, I thought that I would take it easy.

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Ivan Ivan Everywhere

September 16, 2004 planet3rry No comments

09/16/04 – Ivan Ivan Everywhere
The monster (read: Eric) is now up and running! Well, he can get up and he can WALK a few feet. He is still much faster crawling, so until he realizes that walking doesn’t hurt the knees, I think he will do walk/crawl think. Also, he is starting to “build” things with his MegaBlocks. He and Jen were playing with them and he started to put the blocks together. Up to this point, he had only been in the “Destructo” mode. The computer woes are not over yet, so there are new pictures or video. We will see.

Hurricane Ivan is on its way. We are expected to get 4-8 inches of rain with some steady winds. As of 10:45am, we are just getting a few sprinkles and there is a slight breeze in the air. By this afternoon, this should all be changed! [edit] I’m making a few edits here at 3:05pm and it is rainy put nothing horrendous and the wind has picked up a bit. The wet weather should be through until Sunday which means the UT game on Saturday against Florida might be a little dicey.

Looks like I am going to bag the Farragut Fall 5k run on the 25th. I just don’t think the logistics are going to work out. I am hoping that I can still make the Big South Fork 17.5m run even if we do not camp.

I am in the process of initializing a Guest Book for people to leave comments, etc. Look for it on the right hand side. It may already be up by the time you read this… [edit] and it is. Just click on the Chimp!

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4 inches

April 4, 2003 planet3rry No comments

Another fine day here in the East Tennessee Area. The weather will be slightly cloudy with a slight breeze as the temperature is a delightful 75 degrees. Ah, Spring is in the air.

That was NOT the case this Sunday in Abington, Virginia! Ha! There was 4 inches of snow, the wet sticky kind, where you can build giant snowmen! Mother Nature was having a little fun for the Virginia Creeper Marathon this past Sunday. I hope to have some good pictures of the conditions of the race in my marathon review, when I get it put up on the website.

Jen P’s birthday was on Saturday and for her birthday we went to the ARCOTS conference in Johnson City, TN. This conference was for the teaching of statistics at the college level and included different ways to explain concepts and ideas using tradition and innovative techniques. Although the speakers were very good they were not given enough time for their presentations and so there was a lot of information left out. Hopefully that will be changed in the future.

School is going well. This past week has been fairly calm. But I have to gear up because this Friday, my 251 class is having a test and then next Thursday my 201 class is having their test. So mega-grading. I will still have my own homework to do up until exam time. This definitely was the hardest semester. YIKES!

Anyway, I have to run to get some more school work done. I am feeling the baby kick much more often and I can even see him kick every once and a while.

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