March slipped up on me. I didn’t realize it’s the 3rd already. I turn 27 in 16 days, gah. The Rogue 5K/10K program starts off tomorrow morning with a 7 mile run. Then a week later, we’re supposed to run a 10K race. What a way to jump back into things!
Hello, March
Mar 3rd, 2006 by bwann
Another day. Another day I am here, strong, and healthy. I feel alive.
If we’re going to assassinate anyone to make the world a better place, why can’t we assassinate Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson?
In other news, video footage of the deer running around and then jumping into the pack of runners at the beginning of Freescale is up at news8austin.com (“Watch The Video”).
I can’t stop reading about Enron. I spent a good two hours last night reading on structured finance and mark-to-market accounting. I suspect I’ll even go as far to buying accounting books to find out more.
Freescale Half-marathon
Feb 19th, 2006 by bwann
I finished Freescale today! It was OMFG COLD! I couldn’t wear my amber sunglasses because ice kept forming on them and/or they’d fog over. All the bridges and sidewalks were covered in black ice. Sweat would seep through peoples’ fleece and then freeze, leaving them a crunchy frosty coating. I can not believe I spent three hours in that! Ha ha I showed my body it wouldn’t get to stay in my warm bed today.
I got up at 4:30, packed up my gear and left. My first preview of what was to come was when I took my first step out of my apartment and lost my footing on ice. The roads were glistening with ice, and city trucks had just started to roll out putting sand and gravel on the roads. The race was delayed thirty minutes for whatever reason; I hear it was something to do with parking. I hung out in the Freescale cafeteria (a nice place, by the way), stripped a mid-weight layer I didn’t think I needed and had cup of coffee to warm up.
The run was quite a slog. Once I got underway outside the Freescale campus I shedded my extra flannel pants because I could tell they were getting wet from warmup. Did I mention it was cold? I started off doing 20/1 at a really easy pace, then settled in to 10/1. By mile 5, I was running out of energy and decided to enact damage control to cross the finish line regardless of time. I was aiming to do 2:30 at Freescale, but that was before the cold front came in and layed the smack down.
I wore my MH softshell over my thinnest CoolMax base layer shirt and I’m disappointed at the result. During our last training run, it was fairly cool outside and I had worn a thicker shirt and the soft shell. It was okay, I got a bit hot and sweaty a few miles out. This time I decided since the temperature was 10 degrees colder I could get away with the shell by wearing a silk weight base layer. This had the effect of me going through cycles of feeling warm and wet and then cold and wet. My base layer was completely saturated and the water wasn’t going anywhere. However, when the wind kicked up, I didn’t feel it. Had I worn a couple of midweight Patagonia shirts, it probably would’ve kept me drier, but would probably be much colder in the wind. I considered wearing my TNF hard shell, which was lighter and had pit zips which probably would’ve solved the wet problem, however fits long (below my waistline) and I didn’t know how annoying it would be to run in.
Around mile 8 or 9 I started walking the majority of the miles. I was taking Gu and chugging the Powerade, but I guess most of my energy was going to keep me warm. Some cute blonde girl passed me, but I didn’t have the energy to pace her, that’s how bad it was. I tried to summon up everything I had and sprint the last quarter mile, but 100 feet out with the finish line in sight my body was screaming, “hey! where are you going! get back here!” and shut down on me. I forced myself to go on at whatever I could manage. Crossing the finish was a blur. I know I was approaching, but I don’t really remember crossing it. I’m really bummed I couldn’t do way better.
RunFast shows my chip time is 2:51, but I disagree. I calculated a nine minute difference between gun time and when I crossed the starting line because I was so far back in the field. While my gun time might really be 2:51, I think my chip time was really around 2:42-2:43 or so. Mad props to the 5:00+ pace groups that marched on toward the finish of the full marathon. There were still quite a group of them splitting off when I diverted to the half-marathon finish.
I trained six months for this, now it’s over. I would say with the disappointment of Freescale, it went out with a fizzle instead of a bang. But I know those six months have just brought me to the beginning. What’s next? I /really/ need to start working on swimming if I’m going to attempt CapTexTri. At the very least I want to train for a full marathon this summer and get back on the bike to put in some distance.
Fearing the cold
Feb 18th, 2006 by bwann
8 hours, 32 minutes until race start! Weather forecast for tomorrow still holding at 6 AM, 31 degrees with 20% chance of ice pellets; at 8 AM, 34 degrees with 20% change of rain. I hope I don’t get hypothermia and die, that’d really suck.
Austin Fit magazine is a horrible publication. The first twelve pages or so contain half and full page ads for plastic and reconstructive surgery to get rid of things like double chins, liposuction, face lifts. Since when does that have anything to do with being fit? It provides the illusion of being fit, without having to put in the effort. The rest of the rag is fluff, very little actual articles or stories. I hope they go away.
The weather forecast shows a high of 40 on Sunday, with a chance of ice pellets and rain at 6 AM. That’s going to create some freezing ass conditions for the race. If it doesn’t get called off for weather, it’s going to take a lot of discipline to get out there and do it. Hopefully I drag myself out in Goretex clothes rather than stay wrapped up in my warm bed because, damn it, I’ve put in a lot of work for this day.
I broke my Powerbook :(
Feb 11th, 2006 by bwann
My Powerbook has faithfully been with me for nearly three years. Today is the final straw. While stepping over it on the way to the kitchen, I snag my toe across the LCD, forcing it back and breaking the hinge assembly out of the LCD. !@#!@$@#!
To summarize, here’s the lifeline of my Powerbook:
Apple says the new intelBookPro (a/k/a MacBookPro) won’t ship for “2 to 3 weeks.” I have no hesitation buying one today, right now, if I can find some place that has one. Time to check the Apple Store here.
Lots of running
Feb 8th, 2006 by bwann
Over the past six months, I’ve ran 185.35 miles.
Atomic tourists
Feb 5th, 2006 by bwann
During random Wikipedia browsing for detenators and nuclear weapon design, I ran across Bureau of Atomic Tourism. There’s groups of people that it’s their thing to visit bomb sites such as Trinity, and the assorted museums devoted to atomic weapons. I clearly need to go out to New Mexico to visit the Trinity site now. It’s certainly not one’s normal travel itinerary. I think it’d be rad to have a few photos of melted sand and radioactive signs in my collection.
Pictures of the experimental breeder reactors is a bit chilling to me. Here are these rusting industrial contraptions in the middle of some field not unlike some old oilfield equipment, but they aren’t just any old rusting contraption, they were radioactive and silently contaminated 1,500 acres around them. The Trinity site is still radioactive, but apparently being there for an hour is no worse than the amount of radiation you absorb on a long jet flight.
I’ve been completely exhausted this weekend. I’ve been on-call for two straight weeks with some long days at the office and it’s been slowly wearing me down. I was working Saturday morning (and already tired) and decided to not do my group long run. I wound up waking up at noon, sleeping close to 11 hours. I tried to go out and run, but after a tenth of a mile, I had a pounding headache. Finished walking a three mile loop and came back home.
When I do situps, I usually hold a 10 pound plate to my chest. I decided to buy a larger plate, thinking I had a 25 pounder, I bought a 35 pounder. I figured out my error when I got back home. Heh! I haven’t tried working with it yet, hopefully it doesn’t rip out my abdominals.
Today, I woke up at 8:30, watched a couple episodes of MacGyver then snoozed for another hour. Went to Mangia, totally lost my appetite and only finished off one slice of pizza. Shopping for new clothes at the mall was a failure. Banana Republic, Nordstroms, Dillards, ExpressMen, none of them had any pants in my size. That’s what I get for being long legged and skinny.
Rogue is offering a 5K/10K speed program starting after Freescale. I am really annoyed at how slow I am, hopefully this program can help me fix that. My goal for the summer is to run a 10K at an 8 or 9 minute/mile pace. I’d like to tackle a full marathon, but I don’t want it to be some > 5 hour ordeal. I’d like to finish one under 4:20. It’s interesting in that this summer I didn’t like running and had several instances where I thought any distance was a long shot. It was painful and really pounded me. After new shoes and regular workouts, the shin pains and achy joints silently went away. Now I enjoy long distance running although it usually takes me a few miles to get warmed up and get my head straight. After 5-6 miles, going 7 or 14 miles isn’t much more effort.
I’m debating my next trip. Preferably somewhere without flying, but I’m not completely opposed to that. I need to go out to west Texas and bag my first state highpoint. I suspect that’ll be a 4-day weekend project.
