First Race report of 2010

A couple of things before I get to the race report,,

• Monday night I was on a flight from Austin to DFW and overheard a conversation that was a perfect example of "I'm not listening". This conversation was between two ladies, one I will call Lady #1 and the other is named Gladys.
  

Gladys: Do you know Evelyn?

Lady #1: No, Who is Evelyn?

Gladys: You know Evelyn, she drives the White Suburban.

Lady #1: No clue.

Gladys: She has dark hair, real perky woman? She would win a Sarah Palin Look-a-like contest.

Lady #1: Hmm, can't remember her,, What does she look like?

 

Well I lied, I do not have a couple of things, just that one, but I am too lazy to go back to the top and change the sentence.

 

Okay, on with the race report. Last Saturday, I had my first race of 2010. This was an Olympic Distance race. (1 mile swim, 24 mile bike and 6.2 mile run). All distances are plus or minus some meters,, because I am too lazy to look up the exact distances. First off, I had an unreasonable goal for this race. I won't repeat the goal because I would like to be taken seriously. I did state my goal to Seth and I think he is still laughing. This race was a shakeout race for the Galveston race at the end of April. My goal, other than to make Seth laugh, was to make sure I had my transitions down and that I was able to push myself hard, all the way through the event. Mission accomplished (not in a George W. Bush kind of way, but in a real way where I actually accomplished the mission).

Swim time was 25:43

Swim was amazing! Felt really good. I was first out of the water in my age group. A word about the swim though, COLD,, damn COLD. It was hard to believe that we were in Texas. I got an ice cream headache,, no wait, I am an adult,, it was a Frozen Margarita headache. The first thing that happens when you get into cold water like this is your diaphragm revolts and signals to you that you are an idiot and since you are an idiot, you do not deserve to breathe for the next 10 seconds. So, while thrashing around with a bunch of other idiots, who are kicking you because they too cannot breathe, you are supposed to swim. Swim forward that is.

T1 – 1:35

Not much that you can say about transition except, wetsuit off, helmet on, shoes and socks on. And I am out of there. 1:35, fastest in my age group.!!

Bike time was 1:20:59

The bike was awesome. It felt good. Heart rate was 144 on average and my average speed was 19.3 MPH. It was just plain fun. I mean it was hard but it was fun to go that fast. I did realize though that despite the intervention and calming mantras, I hate the wind. Totally weird to be spinning fast, turn a corner and then suddenly be crawling along into a headwind. Very happy with my bike times

T2 – 1:09

Change shoes, replace hard hat with soft hat, and then hit the trail.

Run time was 52:29

Good solid run. Avg pace was 8:28. This is amazing for me, especially after a bike. Best thing about the run was the fact that I ran. I have had some tendencies to just stop running when I mentally or physically got tired. I would get distracted and then just quit running. I have been working on that so it was good to see a very solid run.

Total Time was 2:41:57 and I came out third in my age group.

Initially I was really excited about getting a podium finish, but when I got home and saw that not only was I third in my age group, I was also last in my age group. At the start of the race I jokingly made the comment that I needed all the other old farts to stay home in order for me to have a podium finish. I got my wish. Just three of us in the 55-59 age group. Of all the wishes I have made, this is the one that came true. Not the lottery number wish, the endless gas tank wish, or the being invisible wish comes true but this one did. Karma, I really expected a lot more of you. So, anyway, I am very happy with my performance. I did really well and I am happy with that,, but still, I was last in my age group!! I now wish that all the old farts will come back out and play.

The Red Licorice Events people put on a great race! Everything was well executed. RLE puts on a great event and they think of everything. Except the heater for the lake,, other than that, good race. The T3 team was out in force as well. Not only racing but cheering and supporting. All in all, a great day!

 

 

Peep Season is upon us

The standard, go to question that most people ask in passing is "How are you?" It is the first thing in the morning when you see people at work, "How you doing?" Getting on the elevator, "How's it going?" Not sure if we do that out of habit or if people really care but I can honestly say that I answer with "Great". I really do feel good, happy, content, and a few more descriptive words.  My training is going good.  I have my ups and downs with it but overall, I feel like training is going in the right direction (not just up and down).  I have lost 13 pounds since Jan 4th and I am beginning to feel comfortable with eating properly.  Although, I have to admit that I am a bit worried because we are getting close to the Marshmallow Peep season. I have a weakness for Peeps, but I think it is okay because they do not contain meat, have no trans-fat, are gluten free and have a shelf-life of 9 years. So, all in all, I am happy. Yes, I know, Yee Ha and big deal. And I agree, it is a big deal. And, I am appreciative, so I throw out a spiritual "Thanks" and say that after Easter, when Peeps go on sale, expect another "Happy" post.

Also, the memory card,, I have some news,, it finally got posted out on the "ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com" web site. You can see it at http://ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com/2010/03/memory-card-found-houstan-texas.html. I sent in several pictures and this is the one that they posted. Now, I have taken on another search, I am looking for Houstan Texas. Any clues?

Synchronicity

This is not a 27 year too late review of the Police album; it’s a story that illustrates synchronicity. If I was wiki-Jim, I would say that this is an experience of two or more events that are apparently casually unrelated, occurring together in a meaningful way. If I can actually write this story down and the reader, (you) understands it at the end, then I will attempt to describe Time Dilation in my next blog. Chance are good that I will screw this up and part way through you will quit in utter confusion. So here goes:


Strangely this story begins with a couple of old dead guys. One is my Dad, who passed away in October of 2002. The other guy, I have very little information about him. I know he is from Nacogdoches and that he was somehow associated with the American Legion. My Dad was in the American Legion so the two of them may have known each other. Mr. “Nacogdoches” died recently. The family of Mr. Nacogdoches was left with a house full of stuff that they had to get rid of. They could not just wholesale go through and toss out stuff, they had to check what was worthwhile, what was a keepsake, what was junk and dispose of things accordingly. Faced with this huge effort, they called in some help from friends. One of those friends was someone, I will call Curt, because, mainly that is his name. Chuck volunteered to help the Nacogdoches family out. As Chuck was going through the many items, he came across a small cedar box that had "Holy Bible" engraved into the front of it.

Chuck opened the box to check it out and found that it was a gift from the American Legion to my Mom when my Dad passed away.     Chuck flipped through the Bible and came across the remembrance page.  It had my Dad's name on it.  Chuck's parents, Bill and Lynn Webb were very good friends of my Mom and Dad.  Chuck called his Mom, and told her about his find.  Mr. Nacogdoches family handed over the Bible to the Webbs and they sent it to Mom.  There is no telling where this Bible would have ended up if not for Chuck.
This afternoon, a little over 8 years since Dad died, my Mom got her Bible from the American Legion.   
I appreciate synchronicity.  I marvel that random events like this come together and are unionized for a short period of time.  I am thankful that a previously unknown family has been linked to mine and that gift has made it's way to where it was originally intended.  In short, I am amazed. 

So, next Blog? Is it Time Dilation ? 

Me and my Quinoa

For the second time in a week, I tried a new food item. First it was eggplant and today I stretched my boundaries with quinoa. Quinoa is a seed that has its roots (pun intended) in Incan history. It is about the size of a BB if that BB lost two thirds of its mass. This is a tiny little seed. I was not sure how much I needed so I bought about two cups of the stuff. I picked up the recipe for fixing quinoa from the www.livestrong.com web site. I put my "Kiss the Cook" apron on and read the recipe. It is rather complicated,, one cup of seeds, two cups of water, microwave it for 15 minutes. I took the apron off. What the recipe does not tell you is that these little seeds swell up, the water disappears and you end up with enough quinoa to feed a small pre-Columbian Andean village. I had more than enough; unfortunately, no one was interested in stretching their boundaries so it was all mine. I added some agave nectar to the quinoa and was feeling very Incan-ish. I give the quinoa / agave a four on the four spoon scale. Good stuff, so give it a try.

One word of caution, After (key word here is AFTER) I ate the quinoa, I read more about this seed and it's nutrition value. In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa under the heading of Preparation is a section about, well, preparing quinoa. First step is to remove the saponins. Them damned old saponins. And I quote "Removal of the saponin helps with digestion; the soapy nature of the compound makes it act as a laxative." And then Wikipedia informs me that most boxed quinoa has been pre-rinsed for convenience so you do not have to worry about saponins. Good news? No! This is bad news because I bought it from the bulk containers. So, I have no idea what to expect because,, oops,, gotta go!!

Beautiful weekend in Austin

The title says it all. You could not custom order better weather than what we had this weekend. I started it off with a 60 mile bike ride out into the hill country. Traffic was light so it was nice to have the roads to ourselves. I should say to myself, since I was bringing up the rear. Following the ride, we did a 60 minute run through the Circle C neighborhood. While I was running, an old guy (my age) stopped me at a corner and asked directions to the Veloway. Then he said, "I wish I could jog, but I can't my knees won't let me". JOG? JOG? Who the hell is he calling a jogger? (Thought but did not say: "Jog this you old fart on a Huffy bike!!")

I spent the rest of the day working in the yard. Due to lack of attention, the yard was looking pretty rough. During training, it gets little attention from me so combining winter and training, the yard was more like "The Adamms Family" front yard or a possible post-apocalyptic scene. I did not realize how bad the outside of the house was until after I cleaned it all up. After I had finished, the Homeowners Association, welcome committee came by to welcome us to the neighborhood. They were happy to see that someone was finally taking care of the place.

Sunday was just like Saturday except we lost an hour somewhere along the way. I had an 11 mile run this AM. It sucked and that is all I have to say about that.

I used the great weather to continue working on the yard. It was a good productive day. I managed to mow the grass, fertilize, sow some grass seeds, and sell two bales of hay that came from the backyard. Two years ago, I botched a recipe of Oatmeal Beef Tetrazzini; luckily I found the crock pot that I tossed into the backyard.

In several episodes of Seinfeld, Jerry and George were working on a script for a TV series. It ended up being a show that was about nothing. That was their bragging rights, they sold a show to the network and it was about nothing. The latest version of that concept is Ghost hunters, UFO shows and Paranormal Children. I was surfing this week and caught some of these shows and they are basically about nothing. They infer that something happened but have no proof. I can do that. I would love to be paid to have a show where all I basically have to do is say "Did you see that?" and then swing the cameras around to show nothing. Then I can scream,, "Something touched me", pan the cameras around to show nothing. Then I can add to it by getting me a FLIR camera to show,, well nothing. Where is my check?

 

 

 

 

Ugh,, Simply Ugh

I am extremely frustrated this morning. I have a virtual trash can full of crumpled up, half written blogs. I start one and then toss it. I know what I want to say, just cannot say it. For some reason, I cannot let it go. So before I fill another trash can up and have to take it out to my virtual recycle bin (else wise I will contribute to filling my virtual landfill. Always thinking green!) I have to publish something, and then I can move onto other things.

I am going through a bout of insomnia. The downside of this is infomercials. All infomercials are about money (saving it and making it), losing weight, firming up your butt, firming up your abs, beauty products and Jesus. They must be making money on these products (and yes, Jesus is this case is a product) else they would not be able to buy air time. These are the 2000's version of the old snake oil salesman. As much as I would like to believe that people have gotten smarter, they have not. Suckers are still born every minute.

For no reason, just a feeling, I think I offended / irritated someone this weekend. If you are reading this and I pissed you off / aggravated you or was a nuisance, I am sorry and let's talk about it. This does not apply to the snotty clerk at Home Depot, you deserved it. Or to family members, you should be used to me by now.

I had a wonderful weekend of training. Everything felt good and I am looking forward to another week of getting better. I am going to ride this high as long as possible. I know that there will be some low points but I will not take them serious and just let them pass. See, a sucker is born every minute

There are times when I forget how old I am. It is both good and bad.

God, this has turned into another scattered thoughts Blog,, I need focus. Maybe, someday, I will be able to write about juicing, the 90 minute Insanity workout, younger looking skin, six pack abs and food dehydration.

Ugh,,,

Scattered thoughts

• Still no word from anyone associated with the memory card. It seems like the universe is against me finding the owner. I sent several pictures and an email to the http://ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com/ website and they have never posted my pictures. They are slow to update the site so they maybe backlogged. I have also sent out snail mails to a church and a construction company,, still nothing back. I may have to surrender this battle.
  
• From the fall last week, I have a good size black and green ringed strawberry bruise on my left hip. It is still sore but all in all, I cannot complain. I came out of it without any problems, other than a bruise to my ego. Luckily, I was not on a team run.
  
• Last week, while in Deer Park, I got a 7 day pass to 24 hour fitness in Pasadena. (Thanks John!). Nice facilities there. Pool, basketball, aerobic court, steam room, all the usual gym stuff. Plus enough TVs to fill up a, well a fitness center. Unfortunately, while on the treadmill, the one directly in front of me was tuned to FOX news. I could not hear the sound but I was able to read the closed captions. It is sad to think that people actually get all their news and opinions from FOX. One "news item" that really caught my attention was about domestic violence. Domestic Violence has increased as the jobless rates have increased. From this, the Fox "talking heads" came to the conclusion that President Obama would reduce domestic violence if he did something about employment. There are so many variables that go into these statistics for both domestic violence and un-employment, I am not sure how they boiled it down and made the two connected. Frustrating.
  
• The long run this weekend was 15 miles. I was out of town so; I had to run on my own. Monday night after work, I headed out on a solo 15 mile run. It was, by far, the best run that I have had in a long time. Everything just clicked. Nutrition was spot on, weather was chilly but not too cold, and I was by myself on the trails. Too dark and too cold for normal people or I should say smart people. There is a nice quiet on the trail at night. I know safety is a major concern when running at night but it is probably one of the most peaceful runs I can think of. It was a great run and one that sort of renews my confidence in being able to run, and enjoy it.
  
• Since starting my diet change on January 4^th, I have lost 10-12 pounds, depending on the time of day I weigh in. It is my first time to ever address nutrition. The easy part is making the change. Deciding to not eat poorly, resisting candy and cookies, all that stuff was pretty easy. Understanding how to eat is the tough part. For me, nutrition is rocket science. It is tough for me to figure out what to eat, how much, what is in the food, keeping track of it. For some reason, I am having a tough time with this aspect of nutrition. To help me on this part of my life, I am working with a nutritionist. We had our first meeting this week and I will be getting some meal plans and information from her.
  
• Still do not have a 2010 race schedule in place. I know for sure, Galveston in April, Longhorn in October, Conroe in November. A bunch of short distance races in the Austin area throughout the year and one more half-IM in the late summer.
  
• Do I need a bucket list?
  
• In most cases, I admire and envy the people who can journal with complete freedom and openness.
  

And that is all I have to say about that.