Month: September 2006

Ahh, a day off

Friday is not really a day off for us, but we always consider it our day to go and do. It is library day. We hit the local English library. It is pretty well stocked. We have recently been bringing home magazines. Even though some of them are from the last century, Readers Digest does not change that much.

But before the library today I went to a friend’s house to see what was wrong with his computer. It is acting wonky. I think the biggest thing is that if he had a bit more RAM, that would really help. I did all the normal diagnostics and found nothing amiss. The good thing about the house call was that I got to eat “second breakfast” today. At home I had a couple bowls of cereal along with my coffee. Then I went to their house and had pancakes with real maple syrup from Ohio. A friend of theirs makes it.

That was at 8:00. About 10:30 we were ready to head to the library. But before the library we had to check the post office for new mail. Nothing. Then to visit the pastor of our church. He is a plumber by trade and I needed hot water heater recommendations. Off to buy a hot water heater. Then finally the library.

After our fun filled day at the library we hit our regular Friday eating out spot…Burger King. Costs just as much as it does back home. Maybe a bit more. But, they have free refills on their drinks. Also, air conditioning is always very nice to have when it is 99 degrees outside. And the kids like the play place. That gives us time to read a bit on the books or magazines we get from the library. Today I did not pick up any books, so we played Sudoku on the Palm Pilot.

Then we ran back home to get the baby down for a nap around 1:30. While she was sleeping, I worked on pulling the old hot water heater out of place. To do that, you have to shut off the water. The water shut off valve is up near the water tank on the roof. I don’t have a ladder that can reach that high. We live in a house with tall ceilings and two stories. I need a 20 rung ladder to make it all the way to the top. My ladder is 13 rungs. So, to shut off the water, I waited until the pump kicked on which let me know the water level was as low as it would go. I quickly shut off the breaker to the pump. Then turned on all the faucets and showers to drain off the rest of the water. I was able to get the water drained and the old heater pulled before 3:00.

At 3:00 we left to meet some friends at the bowling alley. Like always, they arrived late, and they are not even Mexican. I have always enjoyed bowling, but it is not something for which I have a passion. This was the first time since we have been here that we have bowled. We were there till just before 5:00. I rolled a 157. Much higher than my average in college which was 135. I was pleased.

At 5:00 my wife dropped me off at home and took our son to chess class. I installed the new water heater (at least enough to turn the water back on to the house) and showered before 5:40. At 5:40 I ran downtown to teach my class at the Deaf school from 6:00 to 7:00. I got home around 8:00 after talking to some friends for a while.

I am writing this at 8:30 and have to go get my son from a youth meeting at 9:15. Then home to relax for the evening.

So, that was our rest day. How was yours?

My Running Log

Check out my running log. Currently you can get to the link at any time in the sidebar under the heading “Blogroll.” I am not sure it will stay there forever, but it will be in the sidebar somewhere.

I have been commenting my runs as much as I can so that it is not just a bunch of numbers. This should make reading the log a bit more interesting. If you want to scroll back through the weeks, click the blue runner forward or backwards. You can also use the charting to see how I am doing week by week, or month by month.

Please don’t look too carefully at the last couple of weeks and this week. I am breaking a basic running rule during those weeks. Because of some rough scheduling and sickness, my mileage was very low for two weeks. Then this week I have ramped up my mileage to an insane amount. When the week is over, I will have made up the last two weeks of lost mileage. I will have pushed over 30 miles this week. A normal week for me would be 15 to 20 miles.

I am sure that looking at someone else’s running log has to be one of the most boring things a person can do, but it is there for those of you who get into that kind of thing.

Comments

According to my logs I have had almost 2000 visits to my site this month. That is not a huge number, but it does mean that someone more than me is hitting the page. That is exciting news.

I am able to see that most of my visitors come to me from Steve Runner’s website and forums. Steve has mentioned my site a few times on his podcast Phedippidations which is about running and trying to make coherent sentences in the process. My mom thinks it is cool that I have been mentioned on Steve’s podcast. She does not even care that he only has 12 listeners. Adam has also mentioned me, but not my site yet, on his podcast Burning 20. I am afraid of what Dr. Monte might say about me once he reads my site. Being a Dr. and all, I am chickening out telling him what I think about his podcast. Maybe he will just come here and read it for himself.

But, if I get all these hits, where are the comments? I am wondering if anyone is actually reading the site. Terry posts comments on occasion. I try to return the favor over at his blog too. Thanks Terry. Of course Mom is there with her comments. You gotta love moms for giving you a boost on occasion. I have two brothers who say they have been to the blog. Never heard a comment from them on the phone or seen one on the site. My wife just gives her comments verbally. I know she reads the posts because I tell her when it is updated and she reads it for typos. Sometimes a post will change drastically from its original posting because there was something in there she deemed inappropriate. So you have to read my posts before she gets to them to see the real me.

To be fair, most of my readers don’t know me. I have not started promoting my blog to my friends. The people I communicate with daily, or at least somewhat regularly, don’t even know I have a blog. I am planning on letting them know soon. I think there is enough content here now to get someone interested.

As Leo at Ask Leo! podcast says: “Leave a comment. I read them all.” I will read them and probably reply just out of sheer excitement for the comment. You do not have to “register” anymore to leave a comment. Just put in your name and email address (email address is not public). I do have to approve the comments before they go on the site and sometimes I will change wording for family friendliness. My 8 year old sometimes reads the blog too. I have to keep it appropriate.

Thanks readers!

Easy run tomorrow

My training plan calls for an “easy” run tomorrow. It is to be a 4.5 mile run. What is supposed to be easy about that? Well, it is not the distance, but the effort put forth. I normally run between 10 and 11 minutes per mile. Tomorrow’s run should be somewhere between 11 and 12 minutes per mile. That will mean just short of an hour.

Today I had a 3 mile tempo run. It really never became that. I logged my splits at the kilometers. They were essentially 6:06 per Km. It was almost perfect splits.

I am just not sure what to do with this run in the morning though. I have never mapped a 4.5 mile run. I have 4 and 5 mile routes. Somehow I will have to figure out the new route. Maybe I will just stick with a 5 mile run instead and boost my weekly/monthly mileage by a half mile.

New podcasts

I am moving from one computer to another with my iTunes library. I had been wanting to make the move for some time, but have been pushed into it recently. The index file for my library got corrupted. The computer I was using wanted to erase my iPod and start over. I figured if this was going to happen, it was time to move to the new computer. It will be easy to import my mp3s. I just need to start collecting my podcasts again and setting up my playlists. Though I had many playlists, I really only use two.

In the process, I noticed that the two Spanish podcasts that I was listening to have died. When you are subscribed to as many as I am, it takes a while to realize that a podcast is not being updated. Sometimes a podcast will come back from a long break and make a comment about being gone and I will not have realized they had been away.

I picked up a new Spanish one to replace my others. This one is Spanish from Spain called Notes in Spanish. I listen to their advanced podcast. As I live in México, the Spanish sounds funny to my ears. We make fun of Spaniards and the way they talk. I am sure they do the same about the Mexican Spanish.

When all is settled in the next week or so, I will try to give a list of those podcasts that made the cut. Of course I already have gotten all the running podcasts re-subscribed that I was listening to. If you have suggestions of your favorite podcasts, leave a comment and I will see what new might interest me. I am mostly into technology and endurance sports podcasts, but have various and sundry other interests.