Catching up to last year

I have been looking at my running log from last year and have been a bit disappointed in one aspect. I had hoped to run 100 to 200 miles more this year than last year. But, going into my half marathon training this summer, I realized that I was behind even just keeping up with last years miles. I don’t remember how many miles I was behind, but it was not more than 50. I knew that if I stayed on pace through my training, and pushed just a bit more that I could catch up. Now I am fewer than 20 miles behind last year.

Last year I was helped in the higher mileage early in the year because I ran two half marathons. The training schedule early in the year kept my mileage up. This year I only had the one half marathon. Which is actually encouraging. I know that I have put in the miles even though I did not have a specific training plan pushing me to do the work.

This week I have really been able to bank some extra miles. I have not done a run longer than 5 miles since my half marathon, but I have stayed on the road better after the race than I did a year ago. This week I have run 3 days and plan to run 2 more. Last year during this week I only ran twice.

I will leave town on a trip next Tuesday. If I can run a few days while I am gone, I may make up the mileage difference before the start of December. Then I will just have to run more often than I did last year (or longer) and I will at least run a few more miles than in 2006. As a new runner, I would think that I can add more miles each year for a few more years to come.

My Thought Spot 17: Running Records Abound

Show Notes:

We are going to have babies!

Our baby bananasOur banana plant that we saved from the trash pile will be giving us a great harvest in about 3 months. This is the hardest part of growing bananas, besides trying to eat them all. They have been growing happily for several months. I am not exactly sure when we planted the sucker, but it was probably in April or May.

What makes this part of the growing process so difficult is that you finally see the bananas coming out and you know it will be at least 12 more weeks. We have not quite gotten to the phase where we will have to wait the 3 final months. This is our first time to grow a banana plant ourselves, but we have been through the process twice with some friends.

In the picture you see the reddish leaves. Those are protecting the hands of bananas. There are 5 hands that are already able to be seen. I suspect there are at least 3 more that will come out based on what I can currently see. But there may be more.

How many babies will we have? Probably well over 100! This sucker came from a mother plant that produced 130+ bananas. I don’t remember the final count, but when the mother plant was growing at a friend’s house, we would count them every so often and just be amazed as to how many there were.

It will be several more weeks before this process is over. I will try to remember and give you pictures to see of our babies as they grow up.

I mentioned that we are in the hardest part of the process, except for the eating of them. I love bananas. My whole family does. But when you have 130 or more bananas become ripe on the same day, it is really hard to eat that many in the small window of time you have. We will be giving many of them away and freezing some.

There is some fascinating reading about bananas at Wikipedia. Mexico was the 8th largest producer of bananas in 2005.

Bummed out by a pen

A couple of months back my wife washed my favorite ball point pen. Not only did she wash it, but I place the full blame of the incident on her. We have an unwritten rule in our house that whoever throws the item of clothing in the dirty clothes basket is responsible for checking the pockets for any items.Parker pen refill

This is a pen that I have not used a whole lot through the years, but it was given to me by my Grandfather several years ago. It is a simple Parker pen.

As a result of the washing, the ink oozed out the end of the ink stick. I went to Office Depot to get a refill. They were out, but I was assured that they would have more “next week.” That is the Mexican way of saying: “We don’t have any right now and we may or may not have ordered more, but if you come back next week you can find out if there are any.” In other words, the salesmen has no idea, but you can check next week and you will know about as much as the salesman does.

I checked back “next week” every so often through the last couple of months. Finally last Tuesday they had them in stock again. I plopped down my $3.50 and bought one. I thought it was a little steep on the price, but I had my sentimental (if not terribly expensive) pen back.

Sunday I announced to my wife that I had misplaced my pen and that I would appreciate her being on the look out for it. Yesterday she found it…as she was pulling the clothes out of the washing machine. Argh!

This time, however, it was my fault. I contemplated having a good cry right then and there. But, I was relieved to open the pen and find that the ink was not escaping. Tragedy averted; or so I thought. This morning I went to use the pen and it felt gummy when I clicked it open. I pulled it apart and the ink was oozing out again. Sigh.

I have it cleaned up right now, but am not hopeful that it will stop the bleeding. I just can’t convince myself that it is worth spending more money on at this time since I am currently carrying two other pens on a regular basis. I guess I will clean it well and put it in the drawer for future use.