Happy birthday, Mr. President!
I'll never forget the day Reagan took office. The school gathered us into the cafeteria to watch the inauguration on the lone TV the school had to witness Reagan taking the oath and giving his address while the hostages were simultaneously being released in Iran. What a great day!
The conclusion of his parting words, so eloquently spoken:
We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.
And so, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
Ronald Wilson Reagan
January 11, 1989
[ add comment ] ( 2178 views ) | permalink
A few weeks ago, I registered for a marathon. I'll be running Pittsburgh 100 days from today which means 99 more days of training are ahead. This week will mark the conclusion of four weeks of training.
So far, the training hasn't been difficult as the distances involved aren't a challenge for me. Week five has the first double-digit long run and that will be the norm for the rest of the training. The plan I'm following comprises of four runs a week, one of which is the long run over the weekend. This long run will gradually increase to 20 miles on Easter weekend and then taper down until the big day in May. During the week, the runs will be two short (three, increasing to five) bookending a medium (increasing to ten); two rest days and a cross-training day round out the week.
Two glitches have come about: the weather and my knee. The weather hasn't forced me to miss any runs yet as the townships have done a sufficient job plowing their sections of the bikepath. However, I aggravated my knee last week and runner's knee has flared up again. It's not enough to stop me from running but I do need to stretch often and am going to PT again to get it worked out. This is my second bout with it.
Will I be ready? The weather will get better, eventually, so it's just the knee that I need to work out. The distances don't intimidate me as long as my body is tuned properly.
[ add comment ] ( 1535 views ) | permalink
Happy Birthday, Ben!
[ add comment ] ( 2134 views ) | permalink
Etch this is stone; it's a lock; a no-brainer. Everyone knows that scientists in the year 1000 accurately predicated what the earth would look like in 2000.
Global Warming: Dire Prediction for the Year 3000
[ 5 comments ] ( 12816 views ) | permalink
I ran 692.16 miles in 2010.
[ add comment ] ( 1854 views ) | permalink
I did it; by my watch: 46:20 up and 44:18 down. The official results are four seconds not in my favor but it doesn't affect anything really. About 1/3 of the runners finished behind me - a number I expected. Runs with the word "mountain" in them bring out the hard-core runners. I held my own in this crowd.
The biggest worry was my knee. I have a minor case of runner's knee and I was concerned that after the race, I'd have to shut things down for the rest of the year. The funny thing is that going down the mountain is harder on the knee than going up and while I haven't run since the race yet, the knee is doing ok. I'll take it easy for the rest of the year - probably no more than another 50 miles - and decide on which marathon to run in 2011.
[ add comment ] ( 1746 views ) | permalink
I am running in the South Mountain 10 miler next Sunday. Why? Why not. The challenge is obvious: a 636 foot ascent over a two mile span. The hill begins around mile two and is done by mile four so at least it's out of the way early. Since the half in September, I have been running about 15 miles a week: two short (3-5 miles each) during the week and a longer run on the weekend 6.2-9 miles). After this run, I am going to pare it down some and maybe settle in at ten miles a week or so - three running days - 3, 3, and 4 (as of now I am at 597 miles logged for the year and my goal was >600). I will definitely do, at minimum, another half in the spring. I want to run a marathon next year but haven't completely convinced myself that I am ready. I may try a marathon as early as spring but I am not willing to commit yet. I will ride this year out and decide by the end the year - whether I do two 13.1 milers or a half and a full next year.
[ add comment ] ( 321 views ) | permalink
Former Student Gets 30 Months in Prison for DDoSing Conservative Figures and Using Botnets [Link]
[ add comment ] ( 1508 views ) | permalink
So I'm in the mood to listen to some Dead. Fine. But in the right pane of suggestions are what I would expect - Dead songs, except for the top entry: "Matt Damon Rips Sarah Palin". Obviously, that's a previously unrecorded Dead song I am not familiar with.
WTF does Matt Damon's opinion of Sarah Palin have to do with the Grateful Dead? Oh wait, this is Youtube, a Google subsidiary; an extension of the left-wing establishment.
[ add comment ] ( 1888 views ) | permalink
Wearing a 1940's German military uniform for reenacting? The horror! Next thing you know, someone will be portraying Amon Goeth in a movie!
This article serves no other purpose than to cause fear. Liberal bias by the media? Nah. If this guy were a Democrat, he'd be called a history buff.
[ add comment ] ( 1743 views ) | permalink
Amazing!
[ add comment ] ( 1507 views ) | permalink
The training plan I followed was a 12 week plan and I stuck to it pretty well. The plan calls for three or four days of running, a stretch and strengthen day, two cross-training days (or one if you run four days), and a rest day. Of the running days, two were moderate, starting at three miles and working up to five and one was the “long” run – starting at four and up to 10 (11 in my case). Cross-training consisted entirely of biking.
I had to jostle some days around but I only skipped one day – in the 11th week I took two consecutive rest days to prepare myself for the longest run of training - 11 miles. Earlier in the training, the third week, the heat wave came in – 98º, 101º, 99º, 93º, 91º but I did my runs early and cut them short by a 1/2 mile. Then, the heat continued through most of July with 15 days at 90º or above. But, really, it wasn't too hard to deal with it. I had most of my runs done by 8-8:30 during those hottest days.
Around week 10 I started to feel some discomfort in my left knee. It wasn't enough to stop and it didn't hurt; maybe a .5 on a 1-10 scale. Quad and hamstring stretches helped but the discomfort never really disappeared. The knee was my biggest concern going into the race.
I maintained my regular diet as well: beef no more than once a week (and probably less than that), lots of fruits and vegetables, wheat pasta, wheat bread, and wheat tortillas, salads with every meal, watched the sodium and sugar. Protein was mostly from beans, chicken, pork, turkey, peanuts, peanut butter, and the occasional PowerBar (maybe half-dozen total; they go well with iced coffee post-run). I did not lose any weight during training although my body fat was measured at 5.2% in late July.
During the entire training, nary a drop of rain fell on me. Which, of course, meant that race day would be a soaker and it was. The rain wouldn't normally be a problem but since the course had long stretches of dirt and cinder, it was muddy. In hindsight, the mud wasn't too bad but, like many runners I'm sure, I had purchased new shoes for the race. Mine had about 50 miles on them which is enough to break them in for a special event.
The course had some bottlenecks at the beginning but once we moved off Sand Island it thinned out and then continued to do so. By mile five I had established my own personal space and felt comfortable. It felt like I was running alone too which is a-ok by me. People were passing me and I was passing others but there was plenty of space to pass from the half way point on.
From about mile four to mile seven or so, I worked up to a two-hour pace but was unable to hold it. Those two little hills at Hugh Moore put an end to the sub-two hopes. Personally, I feel a 2:03 for a first half-marathon is very good.
In short, I found it much easier than I though it would be. Before the race, I broke the course down mentally into segments. Segment one was the start to Freemansburg, the second was Freemansburg to the boat launch, then boat launch to Hugh Moore, and lastly HMP to the circle. I thought this would help me as I could view it as several small runs all in a row, in case I got into trouble. It turns out that I never really paid attention to the segments. I just kept going.
Finishing in just over two hours makes it easy to pick my goal time for my next half in the spring. I'll be ready.
[ add comment ] ( 1800 views ) | permalink
Archives
