Being broke sucks.

That is all.

I'm Back

Well, it's been a while since my last post. What's been going on?

The roof is done; we were able to get an equity loan to pay for it and the roofers were able to finish it in a couple of days. It looks very nice and seems to be shedding water nicely. So we've got that going for us.

June and July were fairly uneventful. I posted for a couple of positions that I wasn't sure I wanted and didn't get either one; I wasn't really broken up about it because as previously stated, I wasn't 100% committed to either one. I think the biggest reason I posted was for the networking possibilities.

August wasn't too bad, except for the problems with the car. Pulling into the garage at work one morning, the shifter suddenly went slack. Turns out that one of the cables connecting the shifter lever to the transmission broke. Well, not the cable itself, the $2 bushing that connects the cable to the shifter. Unfortunately, our mechanic couldn't just replace that bushing, he had to replace the entire cable. It's a dealer part, so of course he couldn't get just the cable; both cables come as a unit. A $250 unit. That cost around $200 for him to install because it's a FWD car, the engine sits sideways and the transmission is far from the shifter.

September brings football season and the Bucs are 2 and 1. YAY!! So far. It also brings us Lightning training camp; HOCKEY SEASON! WOOHOO!! I took vacation and we went to training camp. Only one day though, the rest of the time, we were remodeling the front bathroom. Which is still a work in progress. We're hoping to have it finished - or at the very least, functional - by the end of this weekend. We'll see. At least our lives aren't dull.

I've been cycling off an on throughout the summer, but haven't been running at all. I finally picked up a new pair of running shoes in June, but still had some knee pain. I'd like to say that I was taking it easy to rehab my knee, but I was a lazy slob. I started running again yesterday and starting today am going to be cycling regularly. Hence, the update to the blog; I'm making myself publicly accountable again. HA! Like anyone reads this thing. I suppose that's about it for now.

Maybe I can get out for a ride tomorrow

I haven't been able to ride the last few days because of all of this smoke. It lightened up on Tuesday, but came back at the end of the week. It's starting to lighten up a bit today though. Looks like I'll be able to get out tomorrow. Here's a picture Beth took yesterday.



No, that's not a view up the street on a misty morning, that's about ¼ mile visibility through the smoke at noon. Definitely not conducive to outdoor activity.

It appears as if the winds are shifting a bit and we may start to see some relief this afternoon.

Running hiatus and Where there's smoke, there's not always fire

Well, I need to take a break from running. I simply can no longer run in my current shoes; it hurts too much. If it's not my knees, it's my hips or my back and I can't really do more than 2 or 3 miles. Since we can't afford to replace them right now, I'm going to take a break until we can. I'll just concentrate on cycling and get my cycling muscles back in shape. Coincidentally, I won a $25 gift certificate to a local running store in a raffle at our company's "wellness fair" yesterday. I'll hang on to that and check the place out; if the prices are good and I like the way they do shoe fittings, I'll get them there. Otherwise, I'll just use it to buy some running gear and get the shoes at the place where I originally planned.

The whole Tampa Bay area is covered with a cloud of smoke today. We have a fairly steady north wind that is pushing smoke from fires in Georgia and north Florida down on us. It's starting to clear out, but this morning it was horrendous; it looked like we were socked in with fog. The smell was overpowering and it worked its way into our building. Everybody has been coughing , I've had this nagging sinus headache all day; it's terrible.
Here's a picture from the newspaper that shows what it was like:


Hopefully, the weather will change tonight and everything will clear up; the weather is supposed to be beautiful all week and we'd love to be able to keep the windows open and the AC off.

Miscellaneous

Had a nice run yesterday morning. 2½ miles and felt good afterward. I wanted to go a little further, but just didn't have the time. That's it for the running portion of this post. Now, on to the miscellany.

Minor rant #1:
What the heck is up with old people and traffic lights? What possesses them to stop a car-length (or more) back from the white line? Over the weekend, I got stuck in the left turn lane behind a guy who refused to pull all the way up and get on the pressure pad to trip the light. So, we sat there as the cross traffic continued on their merry way, until somebody finally pulled up into the straight lane and forced the green light so that we could finally move. We live outside a fairly large retirement community so I know from experience this isn't just an issue with this guy; a vast majority of the older drivers do the same thing. There have been times where I've had to pull around in front of them to get the light to change (when there are no other cars around to trip the light).

Minor rant #2:
That must've been some badass pair of pants. Look up 'whiny bitch' in the dictionary and you see a picture of this guy. Ok, less of a rant and just more of an observation of just what a punk this judge happens to be.

Random observation:
The 4th floor men's room in our building has smelled like maple syrup for the last 2 days. Had to use it yesterday while the 5th floor one was being cleaned and it was really strong. Today I had to use it when the 5th floor one was full; it wasn't as strong as yesterday, but it still smelled faintly of maple syrup.

Cruddy long run and duped by an urban legend

I got out for 6 miles this morning and had another cruddy run. I was fine for about 2 miles and then had to walk a bit. That was a big mistake; I wound up walking between ¾ and 1 mile of the total 6. I think that part of the problem was starting off a bit faster than I wanted. Normally, I'm pretty good about my pacing, but I was having issues this morning. I also seemed to be having some form problems as well; I kept hunching over, making it harder to breathe. With that in mind, I'll pay a bit more attention to it and see how I feel on my long run next week. Also need to start some strength training for my back. It will help my back problems and should help my posture during my runs.

Update to the link I posted a few days ago about the "poodle scam" in Japan. It's apparently a hoax that's been debunked by Snopes. I normally don't fall for stuff like that, but I saw it on an actual news site, so I assumed that it had been verified.

Decent run and Perhaps a career change?

I got out for my run again this morning. It's nice to finally show some consistency. It was a pretty decent run; a little over 3 miles at an easy pace. I felt really good, especially considering how my run went on Saturday. I definitely need new shoes though. I've been feeling minor aches here and there for a few weeks or so, but today I felt what may be the precursor to shin splints. Hopefully I can hold that off with some extra stretching and some exercises I found on Cool Running. I was planning to replace my shoes in the very near future, but the leaky roof put that on hold. Hopefully, we can get a home equity loan to cover that cost. If we can't, I'm not sure what we're going to do.

Of course, I could always become a "poodle breeder" and export them to Japan. It wouldn't take me long at all to pay for the roof that way.

Busy weekend..

Well ok, it wasn't that busy, I'm just a slacker.

Let's see... I had an incredibly crappy run on Saturday. I planned to do 6 miles, but wasn't really feeling it when I woke up. I made myself get up and get out anyway and said that if I still felt the same after a mile, I would stop. I actually did feel motivated once I got going, but about a quarter mile later, it felt like someone poured sand in my lungs. I decided to hang it up and just go home. Saturday was also prom night. Here's the dashing, young doofus:

The prom theme was 007 Diamonds are Forever, so Beth took him down and had him pick out the white jacket as opposed to the traditional black. When he got home he said he wasn't wearing a white jacket ever again. The reason? "I don't know if it was the color or what, but it was really heavy!" Yes Spud, it's well known that white is the heaviest color in the spectrum... we should have warned you.

Sunday was Beth's birthday and game 6 of the first round of the NHL playoffs for the Lightning. We hit the bike shop so she could pick out what she wanted for her birthday. (she wound up with a trunk and a pair of gloves) Then we had some people over to watch the Lightning get schooled by the Devils; the bastards. They had so much momentum going but blew it in game 4. If they had played games 4 and/or 5 with the desperation they showed in game 6, they'd be getting ready for the 2nd round right now rather than getting ready for rounds of golf. As they say, there's always next year.

Monday brought a dentist appointment for Beth and another trip to the bike shop. She had more birthday money to spend and Josh's bike was due for its 100 mile tune up. Tuesday was fairly uneventful; a trip to the mall and Beth and I were able to sneak in a bike ride. This was the first time we've ridden together in almost a year and it was fun. She may be getting some weekend days off in the near future and we can do it more often. YAY! For me it was the first time on the bike in a few months. I've been focusing so much of my energy on my running; maybe this will be a catalyst and help me revive my cycling in the same way.

Beer: It's made us what we are today

From Gizmodo:
"Charlie Bamforth, a British academic who holds the most fabulous of titles—the University of California's Anheuser Busch Endowed Professor of Brewing Science—claims that without beer, we would be without computers, the iPod, Silicon Valley and the space program."

And people generalize beer drinkers as pot-bellied, NASCAR watching, Billy Bobs. Without beer, they would be sitting in the dark in a goat skin tent somewhere. Ungrateful, that's what they are.

Here's the source article.

Stress Affects Your Running

Well, my running anyway. Still worrying about how to pay for the roof and had a sub-par run this morning. Just 2.5 miles and took it easy, but was still slower than I would have liked and felt like I ran harder than I did. Hopefully I can shake it off and do a little better on Thursday. Maybe I'll solicit Internet donations like other people have in the past. "Send me a dollar so I can buy a car, get new boobs etc..." Our situation certainly isn't any less important than those, right? Oh well, who knows?

The Snoogie is feeling better. He still has a cough, but not that nasty, barky cough he had with the croup. It's just a little wet sounding; like he's got some congestion with a regular cold. Other than that he's his normal, wildman-of-Borneo self. He likes hockey and got all excited when I turned on the Lightning game last night. He'll sit there and watch it for as long as his attention span lets him and then goes off and plays, but comes running back in with his hands in the air if he hears the horn go off.

Lightning lead the series 2-1. one more game at home and then back to NJ. Here's hoping that they head back there after Wednesday 3-1. GO BOLTS!

Roof Update

Well, the roofing guy said that they can patch the two spots with the leaks, but all of the shingles need to be replaced as well. The existing ones are apparently too brittle to try to match up with the ones they would need to replace over the bad spots. The estimate was in the neighborhood of $6000. {SIGH} I have no idea where we're going to come up with that. Hopefully, we can get some kind of home equity loan from our credit union or something. This sucks. I suppose it could be worse though; at least we don't also have to replace all the decking. Oh well, I guess the silver lining is that a new roof will add to the value of the house and may be a selling point when we sell it in a couple of years.

Ah, the Joys of Home Ownership

Leaky roofs suck. We had a bunch of rain on Tuesday and discovered we have 2 leaks in the roof. They don't look too bad, but "the roof is leaking..." is not an instant message you want to get at work. I crawled up in the attic after dinner that night and it appears to just be two little spots where it's seeping in and then running down the trusses. I think the only reason that it leaked at all is because we had a heavy, soaking rain all day on Tuesday and it saturated the roof enough that it started to seep through. Hopefully when the roofing company comes out to give an estimate, they will be able to repair the bad spots and not try to coerce me into replacing the entire roof. Heck, the thing is less than 15 years old.

The Snoogie is sick. He barfed this morning and has a fever. Beth is taking him to the pediatrician this morning. I hope it's just the flu or a stomach virus; he got into the bathroom yesterday and was playing in the toilet and I'm all paranoid that he's sick because of that. Fingers crossed.

UPDATE 8:30pm: Jack has croup. Much better than if he had some type of toilet mung. He's on antibiotic and prednisolone; he's had this before and should be fine in a few days.

Apparently, Computer Geeks are Dangerous

Came across this on a forum I hang out in. Nice to see that NYPD had all of those murders, robberies, assaults, gang activity, etc... all straightened out at the time and had nothing better to do.

Nice run this morning

Woke up this morning and my back felt sooo much better. I did a nice, easy run today; just 2.5 miles. It was a little humid due to the rain last night, but it was in the low 60s, so it felt great. Even with the little bit of lingering back pain and the layoff due to said back pain, I held an acceptable pace and felt really good. I'm really looking forward to finding a race for this summer and seeing if I can improve on one or both of my PRs. The best part of the run this morning however, was no worries about possible bear attacks.

STILL haven't seen the results for the Bolt Run and it's really starting to bug me. I emailed the race director on Friday, but haven't heard a peep from her. In the grand scheme of things, my placement isn't all that important - I know how I did against my previous time - but, It would still be nice to measure myself against other runners. Although, if I was Ty Webb, I would do that by height.

Ouch, part II and Insane Car Accesories

I woke up yesterday and my lower back/hip were killing me; it hurt to move. So, needless to say, I skipped the planned long run. I wanted to do 7 or 8 miles, but it hurt to walk to the bathroom, let alone to run for an hour or more. I laid on the heating pad for a half hour or so and then hit that spot with the percussion massager for about 5 or 10 minutes. It didn't seem like it really did anything at the time, but I felt pretty good this morning when I got up. Hopefully, it will go away completely in the next few days and I'll be right back on track.

From the some people have more money than sense dept, there is this gem. I suppose that's on par with buying someone a diamond so big, it will make them puke. Of course, if you've got that kind of a wad to drop on a car accessory, you would probably pay someone to puke for you.

Weird dreams and mediocre runs

So, just before I woke up this morning, I was having a dream that we had a grizzly bear roaming around our yard. This is odd for two reasons: first, because we live in suburbia (rural suburbia, but suburbia nonetheless) and second, because we live in Florida and that's about as far as you can get from grizzly territory and still be in the U.S. I figure it's because we watched a show called Rogue Nature on The Discovery Channel the other night that happened to be about bears and that inspired the subject matter. It was a fairly strange dream and really vivid; when I got out of bed and went for my run, I was still halfway convinced that I was going to be bum-rushed by Shardik coming out of the trees on the side of the road or something.

The run this morning was ok, not bad, but not great. The weather was just ok, I had to cut the run short because I overslept a little and I just wasn't "feeling it" this morning. But, I got out and did it and that's what counts I suppose. We're just about getting to the time of year where it's warm and muggy out before sunup and I'm not looking forward to it too much. This is where the whole consistency thing comes in... if I can make sure that I'm training regularly and not missing any workouts, it'll be a habit by then and much easier to get up and go in the mornings. So far, so good.

The results from the Bolt Run haven't been posted yet. I'm not sure who to be mad at; CoolRunning or the race director. She emailed all the participants a few days ago and said that the results would be posted by Wednesday, but they're still not there. I'm not sure who is dragging their feet. Probably the website, I haven't been too impressed with their web dept there. The content is great, but updates don't appear to be regular and they have some broken links. Oh well, no use getting stressed over it, it's not like I was in any danger of placing or anything.

Ouch

Well, I'm taking a day off today. My knee was sore before I even started stretching today, so I decided to take some Aleve, put a bag of frozen peas and carrots on it and take it easy. I think that I need to mix in some type of strength training, but it's difficult when you don't have any equipment. Dick's sporting goods just opened near us, so we stopped in to check it out the other night; I was looking at a set of those adjustable weight dumbbells and they were $350! Oh well, we've got no place to store them anyway.

I think that our next house is definitely going to have some space set aside that we can use as a "fitness center". It would be nice to be able to get a good workout and not have to leave the house or pay over-priced gym fees. The next best thing would be a gym at work, but that's not going to happen in our current facility. I doubt they'll put one in at our new facility either; even though it's the item most often inquired about/suggested. For some reason, leadership seems very reluctant to provide something like that. At the very least, I'm hoping for shower facilities. Then, I can maybe work in a run at lunch and perhaps also do some bike commuting.

Google offers free wireless broadband service

From Google.com:

Welcome to Google TiSP: "Sick of paying for broadband that you have to, well, pay for?

Introducing Google TiSP (BETA), our new FREE in-home wireless broadband service. Sign up today and we'll send you your TiSP self-installation kit, which includes setup guide, fiber-optic cable, spindle, wireless router and installation CD."


This is too good to be true! It's too bad that we won't be able to take advantage of it due to the logistics of our home construction, but maybe the competition will bring our ISP prices down.

Bolt Run race report (mission accomplished)

Today was a beautiful day for a race; mostly sunny, around 65° at the 8am start and low humidity. What a difference between a huge race like Gasparilla and a small race like this one. It seemed a little disorganized, but the start went off without a hitch. It wasn't chip timed, but the field for the 5k was so small that I crossed the start line within 5 seconds of the start.

The race begins right in front of the Ice Palace (I'm old school, I still can't bring myself to call it The St. Pete Times Forum), loops around the building under the plaza, hangs a left on Channelside Dr and heads out to Bayshore Blvd. You head out on Bayshore and the turn around point is a couple of kilometers along. Bayshore Blvd is always a great place for a run; you've got cool looking mansions on one side and a great view of Tampa Bay and downtown Tampa on the other.

I was able to accomplish my goal of sub 30 minutes. I finished in 28:37, almost 5 minutes faster than my last 5k time. I started out a bit fast I think, but settled into a good race pace in the first mile or so. It was a little difficult to figure out my pacing because I didn't know the course before hand and the splits weren't really marked. They did have volunteers calling out times as we ran past, but the guy at the 2 mile point was the only one that said what distance had been covered. Up to that point, I had no idea how I was doing in relation to my goal. I passed him at 18:16 or so and knew at that point, barring any injury, that I'd be able to meet my goal. It was also a bit of a psychological boost to know that I was 2/3 done with the race. I felt pretty good in the last 1.1 mile and it certainly helped that the last half block to the chute was a downhill slope.

All in all, it was a fun race and a different experience than a larger one. I'm very happy with my time and improvement; I can't wait for my next race. I just have to decide what distance I want to do and in which race to do it.

Tomorrow is race day..

Well, tomorrow is race day. The 5k is at 8:30, so I'll need to get an early start. Even earlier than I planned, because I never received my race packet in the mail and I'll need to go to the registration table before the race to get my stuff. That's a little irritating, but what are ya gonna do, eh? I'm hoping to finish in under 30 minutes. I think that's definitely doable.

Africam.com

Africam.com | Popup Player

Got this link from a forum on Bicycling.com. Looks pretty cool, but it's night, so there's been no action so far.

3 days to go

Had a nice run this morning. My next 5k is coming up on Saturday so I'm taking it easy this week. Keeping the mileage down and taking them nice and easy. Other than that, it was completely uneventful. Getting my running more consistent is helping my back. It feels soooo much better than it has the last few weeks. I'm sure that it's the activity combined with all of the stretching.

Not much to this post, but it's more to get me updating consistently than anything else.

Getting ready for: 6th annual Bolt Run 5k in Downtown Tampa, 31 March 07

Weekend update

No, Chevy Chase is not subbing for me...

It was another busy weekend. I never made it to work on Friday; about 3 miles from the office, some idiot ran a red light and I had to really stomp on the brakes. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but they've been needing replacement for a little while. About two blocks later, I went to stop at a red light and heard a 'klunk!' from the front wheel and the brake pedal went to the floor. Luckily, I didn't hit anyone or anything and was able to get off the road. Upon a quick inspection, I didn't see any parts on the ground and nothing hanging or leaking from the car. I couldn't get a tow truck, so I thought I was screwed, but when I pulled off the main road and tried to find a more private and hospitable place to freak out, I determined that I still had a little stopping power. I was able to limp home without incident.

I took both front wheels off and saw that in addition to needing brake pads, I needed rotors as well. Went to the auto parts store, picked up everything I needed and then replaced everything on Saturday.

Getting everything done yesterday allowed me to get in my long run this morning. It was a good run. I did a nice, easy seven miles. The weather was beautiful; 60° at 6:30 and a light breeze. Perfect weather for running. The run itself was pretty uneventful, aside from the asshole in the truck who decided that I really should be running in the grass and not on the edge of the pavement and forced me to jump off the road pretty quickly. So, aside from seeing a jackass, I didn't really see any wildlife. Every once in a while, I'll see a hawk or a rabbit out looking for some breakfast. Once, I saw a fox; that was pretty cool. Today, not so much. Yesterday evening, we had a picnic dinner at the beach - Jack loves going to the beach and playing at the playground there - on the way out, we saw a couple of horned owls up on a telephone pole getting ready to hunt. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to see stuff like that around here with the way that they're building houses on any unoccupied patch of ground. It's pretty depressing actually.

Well, that's enough of that. It's getting late and I've got to work tomorrow.

Getting ready for: 6th annual Bolt Run 5k in Downtown Tampa, 31 March 07

2 good runs this week

Ok, so my posting needs to be more consistent also. I think it's been about a week.

Didn't do my long run on Sunday, but I was busy replacing the water tank on our well. It was leaking air somewhere and causing the pump to short-cycle again. I was more than happy to spend $200 to replace the tank rather than have to spend $1500 to replace the pump again. That sucked, especially because we couldn't really afford it at the time.

Tuesday was a nice, easy, 2 miler and today I did 4 miles. Felt really good when I was done (as usual); don't know why it's such a chore to get out there and get started. I guess it's mostly because 4:30 is damned early. Oh well, no use pissing and moaning about it I suppose. Although, that is part of the reason that I'm using this blog. Meh... don't feel like whining tonight. Getting up that early gives me more time with my family in the evening so, it's a trade-off I'm willing to make.

Not much going on beyond that currently. The Lightning are currently tied 1-1 with the Devils. Hoping they can pull this one out, then keep their heads out of their asses for the remaining 6 or 7 games of the season and build some momentum going into the post season. GO BOLTS!

Getting ready for: 6th annual Bolt Run 5k in Downtown Tampa, 31 March 07

O.K., so it took a day...

Dad used to say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

I was determined to get up and ride yesterday, but the muscle relaxer that I took the night before had a different plan. I did however, get up today and do 3 miles (3.3 if we're being exact). It was a good run and I was relatively happy with my pace. I started out slow and was able to run negative splits rather easily; I didn't have any specific pace goals in mind when I started other than to make each mile faster than the last and I accomplished that. As a matter of fact, the last 1.3 miles was at 8:32. Certainly not fast by most standards, but a pretty good pace for me nonetheless.

On a non running related note, looks like we may actually have some decent movies this summer. 3 at least. The new TMNT movie is out soon, Transformers hits in July and I just saw the Underdog trailer the other day. I'm really hoping that they don't screw that one up, it would be really depressing. I used to love that cartoon as a kid. It would be ideal if the local drive in gets all 3 of them at some point, because I'm sure that Jack will love each of them, but I have no desire to take a 2 year old to the movie theater. I'm sure that my fellow movie-goers will thank me for that.

Getting ready for: 6th annual Bolt Run 5k in Downtown Tampa, 31 March 07

Overslept!

ARRRGGHH!! I was all ready to just get up and head out for a couple of miles this morning, but I turned the alarm off instead of hitting snooze. That's so frustrating! Here I was ranting about my consistency yesterday and then blow it again today. I guess it's like that guy in the movies; the cop that's days away from retirement who gets killed right after laying out what he's going to do when he's retired, or the private in the war movies who buys it days away from shipping home to his high school sweetheart to get married. Tomorrow, I get up and head out for a ride. No excuses, no B.S., just consistency.

Then, to top it all off, it was a really busy morning at work today. Non-stop calls for about 3 hours... it sucked. I have got to get off the phones; I've been taking calls for 7 years now and I think it's time to be done. The only problem is that we're currently in the middle of busy season, and they've implemented a freeze on all new positions and transfers. Oh well, keeping my eyes open for anything that might come along. I've just got to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Too bad they don't have a "get paid to stay at home and ride your bike or run all week" position. Pretty sure that I could master that one pretty quickly.

Been slacking...

Well, it's been a busy week and it's kept me from posting. Only ran once this week aside from today. Today was a pretty good run; 6 miles, decent pace (for me), nice weather and a nice sunrise. Mornings like this are what make me want to keep at this. I need to make a more concerted effort at consistency. If I can only manage to run 2 times a week, I'll never make any kind of improvement in my pace/distance and I'll be stuck at 209 pounds. Maybe I can use this morning as motivation; if I was able to get up and run after early daylight savings time, I should be able to get up and run/bike on a normal day. If I can do that for a few weeks, it will become a habit and easier to do every day. So, that's what I'm shooting for.

Getting ready for: 6th annual Bolt Run 5k in Downtown Tampa, 31 March 07

Today's ride

So, I got enough sleep last night and didn't really have any problem getting out of bed today to ride. Although, I was a bit disorganized and took a while getting out the door. The ride itself was fine and fairly uneventful. It was overcast and a bit chilly so, no pics of the sunrise because there really wasn't one.

Another workout bust

Well, I was supposed to ride today, but didn't. There was a bit of a situation last night that resulted in a late night "we need to talk" session that had me up until 1am and then I didn't sleep well after that. There was no way I was rolling out of bed 3½ hours later when the alarm went off. Oh well... tomorrow, none of this should be an issue and I'll do a longish ride then. A couple of hours alone on the bike in at daybreak will probably do wonders. Maybe I'll bring the camera along and try to get some pics of the sunrise or something.

God help the jackass that stole my bike

So, last summer my bike was stolen and I had to replace it. It was a second-hand, mid-80ish Peugeot in pretty decent shape and may not have been anything special, but it was mine and after much trial and error, I had it fit to me perfectly. When I replaced it, all I could afford was a Schwinn Varsity from Wal-Mart. It's a decent bike, but I've been tweaking it for months and it simply is still not as comfortable. It's really a drag.

So, basically, I had a rather disappointing ride yesterday. The whole thing just felt "off", so I cut it short. Then this morning, about 2 minutes into my run, my knees both made it known that they were not on board with my choice of activities. Perhaps if I'd gotten a little more sleep, I'd have been a little more motivated and able to overrule them, but they shouted me down. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

First run since my 15k race

I ran the 15k in the Gasparilla Distance Classic on the 17th and took a week off after. (read: was too lazy to drag my ass out of bed) Today, I finally mustered up the will power to get up and go for an easy 2½ miles. As tired as I was when I rolled out and then hit the road in the dark, I felt really good walking back up the driveway when I was done. Felt like I finally shook off whatever malaise has been hanging around me for a few weeks. I definitely feel more motivated and am eagerly anticipating getting back on my bike tomorrow.

Well, here it goes...

As cliché as it's going to sound, this is my blog. Not really sure what I'm going to do with it right now, but I'm sure it will all coalesce into something in time.