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Wed, 19 Sep 2007 02:20:53 GMT

Maybe I should have my wordpress post back to here

It’s Race Week

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:05:50 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Whoops… I never hit publish on this post! YIKES!

Hello People out there it’s race week here in Tennessee!

This Saturday I have the Calhoun’s 10 miler set for Saturday morning right near the Tellico Dam on the Mighty Tennessee. And I am so unprepared for this race. It’s not funny. OKay, maybe it is a little funny… haha with a little “h”.

Once again, I missed my opportunity to do a long run over the weekend. It was my intention to run a 8.something course on Sunday morning, but the sleep bug took a big bite out of my ass and kept me in bed. Zzzz. Despite the fact that we overslept, until our kids came to wake us up, we still made it to church and Sunday school, stuff that we have been, eh-um, a little slack on the past few weeks.

Okay, a sad little mention here before I get back to the running. You know that BlackHawk Helicopter that went down the other day taking out like 13 people? Well, I found out today that our Sunday school class, Partners in Christ, have been gathering supplies (soap, candy, etc) to make care packages for the soldiers overseas. Well, some how our class and the chaplain whose unit lost those men are connected. I don’t know if we were going to be sending them packages to that specific unit or if he’s just the overseas contact. Anyway, a news story hits close to home.

Now back to our feel good story of the day. Despite the fact that I did not run either on Saturday Nor sunday. I did run on Friday… 5 miles to be exact. I ran my Back to the Tracks 5 mile course through downtown Knoxville. It’s actually a hybrid of my Market Square Fab 4 course, so it’s comfortable. On Friday I ran the course in 44:20 and was a little worn out after it. I can’t say that I was excited at my pace seeing that the 8:52 (average) pace was really getting to me. Especially after my Thanksgiving race of 5 miles was a 7:30ish pace at race pace. Remember, I have a 10 miler this weekend.

So today, I ran again. This time, I ran the Back to the Tracks course again. I didn’t really know that I was going to do this course, but I went ahead and decided to do it even though I knew I would be cutting it close with my lunchtime. Today, I did much better. I finished the 5 miles in 42:57 an 8:35 average pace and I had enough energy to finish the last 0.2 of a mile strong. Basically, the Fast Finish technique if you listen to the Dump Runner’s Club.

I used an online race predictor to forecast what my 10 mile time should be before the race and it was a 9:01 pace of 1:30:12. I’d say that is about right. I’d give you all the ugly stats about the Calhoun’s 10 miler in a post closer to race day, but for now I am going to shoot for a goal time of 1:29:30, with a stretch goal of 1:27:30. Current PR for the course is 1:26:08.

WOW

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:32:16 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

How many of us have dreams (hands raise)

I learned quite a bit during my time in San Diego. Despite that I was very cold in Southern California, I had a chance to do some inner processing of myself, I think that’s why I love, no… LOVE MK events like this. Not only only am I surrounded by hundreds (sometimes thousands) of Sharp women (a good number that make more money than I do) but I get to ride on my wife’s coattails and get free training and free stuff as well.

If you were around in July, I talked about it “Raining Firemen” (if that interests you, there ARE pictures, just go back to the July 2006/August 2006 archives), that MK event is called Seminar and is in Dallas every July. In January, the MK Directors have a conference in mid January called Leadership and is held at different cities around the Nation: Nashville (2004), New Orleans (2005), Atlanta (2006), San Diego (2007) and Houston (2008). Leadership is for Sales Directors only and is a time of cleansing with the new year as well as focusing on goals for the rest of the MK Year (July-June).

This year, a few of the National Sales Directors got together and had a Power Day, the day before Leadership actually started. It was this day that had the biggest impact. I’m writing most of this without looking at my notes, but if I don’t do it now, I’ll be way far behind…

But I figured out what my Dream job would be (which after saying it outloud, it seemed rather obvious):

To have a photography business where people could contract me to preferably fly me various places (with my family) around the world to take pictures for them, in whatever capacity they needed. I would be given time to explore the area with my family as well as on foot while running.

I still I have a few things to work out, but I am going to start on my dream job right now. In the next few days, I will be unveiling my new camera, but what I need to focus on is my W.O.W.

What is a W.O.W.? you ask. Well, the guest speaker for the Power Day was Marcia Wieder, America’s Dream Coach. I didn’t know who she was either until that day, but you know what… Oprah knows who she is. She was personally chosen to be on the Big O’s show about dreams ( not the ZZZZzzz kind).

Marcia expertise about dreams and we were treated to a short course on her normal workshop that she holds. I’ll give you two stories that Marcia talked about, one that a 70 year old lady and I have in common as well as a story about her dreams.

Marcia spoke about a 70 year old woman who had an aspiration of being a professional photographer. Do you know what the difference between an Amateur photographer and a Professional photographer? You guessed it… cold hard cash!

So at the ripe young age of 70, this woman wanted to be a professional photographer, but everyone around her told her that she was too old, too this, too that. Despite all the negative talk, she considered submitting one of her photos to a contest being held by Kodak (remember my Staples photo contest from a while back). She eventually did submit a photo and it won 1st place and for her reward, she was PAID $10,000 and her photograph traveled the nation in an art exhibit. I could not believe the similarities between us, except for the age and gender differences. You better believe that I am going to enter that Staples contest!

The other story is about Ms. Wieder herself. At an event that Marcia was attending, a women asked her to name one of her dreams, after all, she does have dreams too. Marcia’s dream was to spend time on a Greek isle writing a book. The women immediately whips out her card and says that she owns a home on the island and that it would be vacant all summer long. Talk about a mind trip.

The lesson here is to speak your dream to anyone and everyone. You are going to have discouragers and encouragers but you are also are going to have people who can do things to move along or catapult your dreams. You remember the tagline, “A mind is a Terrible thing to waste”, “Dreams are terrible things to waste” too.

So, I’ve told you my dream in a raw form. I will be sharing more about my dream and what steps I am taking to reach my dream and I hope that in some shape way or form, this will help you as well. In the beginning of March, we are going back to San Diego to attend her weekend conference.

But what’s the W.O.W. thing… it stands for Within One Week and it’s an action step that you take to reach your dreams. To use marathoning as an example, we don’t just go out and run a marathon. We map out a schedule (hopefully stick to it) but our goal of running a marathon starts with a short small success. It might be walk a mile, it might be run a mile, it might be walk/run 4 miles. Whatever it is, it’s a step toward the dream of finishing a marathon.

So my WOW task is to create a portfolio of my work. I used to have (it’s still there ) a photoblog of some of the stuff that I thought was decent, and scattered within it was stuff that I really liked. I abandoned updating that photoblog from the shear amount of spam that I was receiving. Since December, I have started another photoblog, which is not updated, with special thanks to Leesa for cluing me in on it. In addition to an online portfolio, I am also going to be making a real life portfolio, one that I can carry…

The Worst Thing…

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:16:02 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

about being gone for so long without internet access is that emails and schtuff piles up!

work emails, personal emails… YIKES! Well, it’s okay for the most part… it’s mostly junk/spam anyway. I’ve worked through all but a couple of emails, so that’s good.

I am trying to work through the blogs now, trying to figure out what you have been up to while I have been gone. Then there is what I have been doing while I have been gone.

I can say that our trip to San Diego was phenomenal… remember back to my Morphing post back on Jan 2? I talked about things in my life… well, I had some great foundation forming these past few days.

Hopefully, I can make “my rounds” in the next few days and check up on everybody. I do have a podcast episode that’s a couple of days old now that needs to go out. It’s recorded, but not edited or anything like that…

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:41:14 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

On our way back to Knoxville. What an incredible time we have had! Passion and purpose…

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 18:24:49 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

We are here in denver, but our flight is late. It is definitely COLD here, it just passes through you. Now to wait for our flight.

Mining for Gold

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 20:05:25 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Well, I think that I may have struck it rich. Okay, it’s not gold, but it’s copper. Don’tthink for a moment that I don’t know that Copper has a great black market resell value. But your not going to find it on any engagement ring.

So check out this photo album and let me know what you think…

Website Updates

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:49:32 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Remember a few posts back when I asked your opinion on 3 different photogallery setups.

Web picture Creator’s gallery: of American Samoa Pics
Gallery2 gallery: Cruise Pictures
PictoralisII gallery: Cruise Pictures

Well, there was an overwhelming concensus (3 people I think) that liked PictoralisII and to be honest, I kinda like it as well. However, I am having a pickle trying to get it to do what I want it to do, organizationally.

I would very much like to have the pictures ordered by date, so that finding albums, etc are easy and logical. I can’t seem to get Pictoralis to do this. I can get it organized the albums by year, but when I do that it throws all the pictures into one album (say, 2006) and stirs. So you the viewer has NO idea what the picture references (was it a picture from St. Thomas or St. Maarten).

I can rearrange stuff in Gallery2, but the format is stiff and stuffy.

okay… so back to see what can work

Go Paperless, Plant a Tree

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:24:59 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

which translates to “Let us guilt you into cutting our costs” or that’s how I see it…

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for trees. The more, the better. I am for being Green, just look at blog colors. I try to use the Greener Flourescent bulbs in my house. Hell, I pay to recycle at my house and I go out of the way to recycle cardboard and mixed paper. In fact, one of the errands I have to do is to dump my cardboard off at the recycle place this afternoon. So don’t label me as a nature hater.

So here’s what landed in my inbox this morning:

Trees play a major role in keeping our environment healthy. To put things in perspective, a single tree can — in one day — provide oxygen for up to four people and discharge up to 100 gallons of water from the ground into the air. And in one year, the tree can absorb 16.87 pounds of carbon dioxide.
By switching to Paperless Statements, not only will you be conserving a vital natural resource, Citi will also plant a new tree on your behalf. For more information, click here.

Plus, enjoy the benefits of going paperless:</p>


	Reduce paper clutter by viewing your statements online
	Access your transaction information anywhere, anytime
	View and print current and past statements, up to six months

Enrolling in Paperless Statements is easy. It’s free. And it’s for a good cause. So what are you waiting for? Just click on the button below and sign up for Paperless Statements.

Marketeers are good… They should have mentioned how going paperless will stop global warming…

Even though I poke fun at this email, at least they (the big huge credit card company) are doing something for the betterment of the entire world. I had one credit card company force me to go paperless and then I had to do a roundabout in the menus to get my paper copy back.

I need my paper copy. To receive it in the mail is more reliable than for me to logon and print a copy of my statement, even though I sit at the computer almost all day and most of the night.

Well, off to recycle my 30lbs of cardboard…

she’s on her way

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:00:18 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Before I start my verbal diarrhea which I like to call my running blog, I would like to ask for your prayers, thoughts, positive vibes, or whatever you call that inner calling for the healing of others. I have a friend who has lost someone quite unexpectedly and is having… I wouldn’t say hard or difficult, but more of a surreal experience with it and needs some healing. I would appreciate it. Thanks.

My hot clicky-chicky is on her way to Big Papa… at least that what the email says. I haven’t gone to the package tracker and see all the sights that she could be taking pictures of, and now that I think about it, it would be pictures of a truck.

So, did I talk about my swim yesterday? I don’t think that I did. Well, it was a nice swim of 3laps, 3 laps, 3 laps and then 9 laps. For a grant total of… you do the math… 18 laps, which is as close as I get to the 1/2 mile marker in a 25 yard lane of a pool. I wasn’t all that speedy, my 400 meter time was a little over 9 minutes, so that wouldn’t cut it for my triathlon swim, but I haven’t really swam since September.

As I was getting ready to run today, a guy started talking about the weather and without actually trying to invite him to run with me, he needed someone to pace him. So, recording of my next podcast was going to have to wait… sigh. But I am helping a fellow runner, so it wasn’t all that bad.

So today I ran with Randall, a 47 year old student earning his BA in Poly sci with the intent of transferring and then going to Law School. He is not a serious runner, but does enjoy the euphoric feeling that ebbs out of our pores after a good run.

We ran my Bridge of Death route through Tyson Park and 3rd Creek Greenway which measures up to 4.32 miles. The pace was a 10:02 pace and pretty consistent the entire run. What was nice is that he was forcing me to run at a slower pace than I would have, so it helped us both out.

Unfortuantely, the slow pace made the run longer than I normally run, thus making me late back from lunch. Luckily, I don’t have an obvious clock watching monger boss, so it was okay. Tomorrow is going to be a rest day and not sure what I am going to do on Friday.

I’ll be in San Diego from Sat-Wed, so not sure what will be on the running plate. I am trying to organize a run with My Other (Running) Brother Darrell, whose son is a becoming a master chef in the area. But we will see if that works out, hopefully so even if for a short jaunt.

Done Deal

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:17:19 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Shipping estimate for these items: January 10, 2007
Delivery estimate: January 12, 2007

“Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Lens (Black)”

Okay, so what’s her name?

me thinks

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:05:25 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

I think I have made up my mind on to which Camera that I am going to get and the winner is the Canon Rebel XT (8.2 MP Camera).

The more and more I think about it, this is the most practical camera for me to get. Do you want to know why? I didn’t think you did, but here is goes anyway.

1) Price. It’s about $700 or so, but I have online discounts and such that I can reduce the price even further. It’s about the same amount as the Olympus E-500 and is much cheaper than the Canon 20D or Nikon D80.

2)Family Tree. The award winning Olympus doesn’t have a very long listing of Cameras in its (current) family. The Canon and Nikon, do. The Big Guns (Canon and Nikon) have major steps up the Technology (and pricing) Tree. Although I may never need more than a step up or two, it’s nice to know that they are available.

3)Loin Fruit. With 2 kids in the house, any electronics device is in mortal danger and there is a difference in replacing a $600 camera as opposed to not replacing a $1200 camera and having to do without.

4)In The Lens. Canon and Nikon have a great selection of lenses. In fact more than I know what to do with or even understand. But a great lens can make a decent camera better. And a great Camera with a great lens cost an arm and a leg and a mortgage payment.

Of course, when it’s ordered I will have to have a naming contest or something goofy…

No Sticky Note Needed

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:17:47 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

I didn’t want to write a whole sticky note for this post, so here it is… it’s almost like a sign.

Free Sample of Beano

I’m glad

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:16:12 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

I am glad to hear that the down time wasn’t a big thing. It’s not like like I have a revenue flow through this thing. It’s all free… but I do expect to have it up and running when I can.

The weekend

We had a call that the In-laws were coming into town not Saturday, but Friday night. Okay, really Saturday Morning at 2am, but we didn’t need to be up to let them in or anything.

Jen and I watched the movie Akeelah and the Bee, which was a great movie. It is story about a little girl and her issues with life and how spelling words turned her life around. Lawrence Fishborne (”Do you want the Red Pill or Blue Pill) is excellent in this movie (as always). Angela Bassett plays Akeelah’s mom who works her boo-tay off for her 3 kids (air force guy, school nerd and a punk) and she has to do this by herself. No, just because they live in lower income Los Angeles doesn’t mean that her Baby-Daddy wasn’t there for the family. The just opposite, he was a victim of a random act of violence while coming home from work. The strangest part was to see Curtis Armstrong as Akeelah’s principle. Now you are saying who in the world is Curtis Armstrong. If you are a child of the Pop Culture of the 1980s. I can give you a hint… “We’ve Got Bush”… or NERDS! NERDS! NERDS!. That’s right, Booger from Revenge of the Nerds (1984) plays the stressed out principle who sees that Akeelah can do wonders for herself as well as their school. Mr. Armstrong has that distinct voice and so although he was talking about serious stuff, I still picture him talking about panty raids and wonder joints.

Akeelah: I’m naturally inquisitive.
Dr. Larabee: Yes, which is also sometimes confused with being naturally obnoxious.

My Grade: A- Great Family film. If you are in a rut and need some encouragement to overcome great odds, this one is a winner.

Sunday we did some shopping. Fellow reader, but never comments, my step-dad, Pete had given us a christmas gift of new chairs/barstools. Our current chairs were faling apart… literally. In fact, just two weeks ago, I was holding The Younger and the chair leg broke off. The Younger thought it was a fun ride. I thought… I don’t know what I thought other than not to drop the kid.

Since Pete was unable to come visit around Christmas, he sent us a check, which meant that we hang onto the check forever and maybe deposit it a month later when we get the chance to look for something. So with some free babysitting (i.e. Grandparents) we were able to go out and look for some furniture.

We scored on an inexpensive, but nice looking table and 4 chairs. We’ll still have enough money to get the barstools that we want AND with some creative shopping, I think we are going to be able to get bunkbeds for the kids.

I had planned to run Sunday afternoon if we got back in time and it wasn’t raining. But since it was pouring down rain, I decided to pass on the running and maybe try the treadmill (yeah, right). But after our huge grocery store purchase, it was time to get home and get the kids to bed. So no running for the weekend. bleh.

Monday

I did get to run at work on Monday. Despite missing the mild weather over the weekend, I was able to run 5 miles in some brisk wind which made the 40ish degree weather feel a little colder.

Probably the worst things about my run on Monday was that I did not have a real plan. I didn’t have a pace (easy, slow, tempo) in mind and so I just ran. You’ll be able to see from my split times that I went out like a Russian Rocket over Denver.

Mile 1: 7:45 pace: Not bad, felt good but not terribly easy

Mile 2: 8:14 pace: Ehhh, Could tell I was slowing down a bit

Mile 3: 8:48 pace: Needed to walk a little

Mile 4: 9:30 pace: More walking, more often

Mile 5: 11:01 pace: Was worn out, had to walk multiple times, although I did run a tempo pace up the Lake Loudon Hill

Total Time 45:18

It was nice to get the distance in, but it makes breaking my PR time at Calhoun’s a little grim right now. It’s not totally out of the question. Don’t forget that I am still dealing with my Date with Alyx.

Oh, if you don’t have one of my other running sites, Catch Me If You Can on your RSS feed, then stop by and visit. I have a new running bib up from a marathon in Israel and I will have up this afternoon a bib from this past weekend’s Disney Marathon.

If you noticed

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:08:10 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

If you happened to have navigated in while my site was down, I apologize for that.

You see… I was getting ready to give the current WordPress an upgrade to the newest version and some how my blog in it’s Pilates warmup to upgrade, something happened and it went down. This, of course, happened right as I wanted to leave work, which meant that I would have to try to figure this thing out at home, after the kids were in bed.

Once, the kidlets were in bed, I started to make all the appropriate uploading/downloading/copying that needed to be done and in no time I was back up and running.

So, if you didn’t notice the glitch, you need to visit more often… just sayin’

Reason #436 on Why I need an DSLR

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 02:17:54 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

436) When Nature Calls, the exposure doesn’t suck.

Evidence #1

Evidence #2

Brain Dump

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:01:03 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

I have a bunch of mental “sticky-notes” that I want to blog about before I put them into the mental wastebasket to be killed off with the next beer.

Ha-ha Marketing
You all know that I love creative marketing. But this was just funny, not witty , just plain Ha-ha funny that I even said out loud “Oh, man, I have to blog on that!”. I went to Kroger to grab some snacks for the office and maybe a donut or two for breakfast. I remembered that I didn’t bring any lunch and so I went and picked up some Bean Burritos for a quick and easy lunch. When I checked out (My Cashier Today was Judith - as told by the receipt), the cashier said, “Oh, wait. Here is your coupon.” She’s referring to the coupons that are automatically printed out based on what you purchased. If you bought JIF peanut butter, you may get a coupon for Skippy. Or if you bought 3 packages of Gerber Graduates, they might give you a coupon for $1 off 5 packages, etc.

Well, when I was back in the van and getting the receipt and change situated, I saw what my coupon for and laughed. It was for Beano.

Gravity@1053
My episode #6 of my podcast is still on the editing table. It’s been recorded but I still have to edit it together. I wasted a great opportunity to put it together by watching the Boise State/Oklahoma Bowl game earlier this week. Granted, it was by far one of the most exciting football games I have ever scene, it was a missed opportunity.

MarathonChris
Chris from Florida is getting ready to join the club. Not any club mind you but a club that takes dedication, commitment, hard work, sweat, sacrifice and little bit of insanity. No, she isn’t pregnant, she already has 2 girls.

No, she is going to run the Walt Disney World Marathon this Sunday morning! This is her very first marathon, EVER! A proverbial Marathoning virgin, if you will. I only recently started reading Chris’ blog which I found from that goofy little podcast that I have talked about here before, Phedippidations. It sounds like she is going to do fine once she gets over a little touch of taper madness that I can sense in her blogs.
So, even you aren’t a runner, you need to go over to her blog, currently titled Count down to first marathon (she’ll have to change that Monday) and leave her a word of encouragement. I would appreciate it!

Photo Contest
If you have a camera, you need to do this. I am pointing at all my Photobloggers out there that I know read this… Leesa, Laura, Stacie, Mike with the Bike, Marianna, John (if you aren’t doing too much housework), uhhh who else, YOU!

And if you submit something you get a coupon for a free big picture! So what do you have to lose?

No running
Today, the weather has been up and down. well, I guess mostly down… rain. In the early morning it was raining, then the sun came out, the clouds came back, doom and gloom, then it rained, then the sun came out, then it got cloudy again and now it’s, ehh overcast.

So instead of running today, I swam. I went 11 laps in the pool which comes out to be close to 500 meters or about 1/3 of a mile. My rehabed shoulder muscle did just fine. I was even surprised because I had a easy time breathing while swimming. My form sucked, but I wasn’t getting shorter breathes the more I swam.

Photoblog
I have moved my photoblog… or rather, am in the processing it over to another site. Instead of using PixelPost (which is a great photo software) I went to Shutter Chance which I wind of from Super Photographer Extraordinaire Leesa. I’ll stick with configuring and adding flashy stuff to this WordPress blog and let someone else deal with stuff over at Shutter Chance. Plus as a network of other photographers perhaps I will get some critics of my work.

Rehab

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 21:23:22 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

As I think about what I am going to write in my next post. I mean, we all (as in bloggers) write our post in our head before it gets down on ~~paper~~ keyboard. And if you are like me the eloquent masterpiece in my mind doesn’t transfer very well down my arm and into the keyboard.

So, today I was thinking of a number of different titles for the post. You would think that I would like to go with clever and witty but that’s not always the case. Of course there is the title that is a tease of what the content is going to be to get to read it in its entirety. It all goes back to good creative marketing, for which I am a sucka!

So rehab is in reference to my shoulder. I pulled a muscle yesterday that has been bothering me. Not that it continuously hurts, but that it is a shooting pain when I forget that it’s there and I turn my head quickly. Luckily it doesn’t hurt while running, but if I stretch just right, I can feel the big wad of threads.

So I ran again at lunch. I knew that I had to because I won’t get a chance to tomorrow and if my shoulder is better on Friday I want to swim. I was even thinking that my legs didn’t hurt from yesterday’s run despite the 11 abstinence from running. Well, they didn’t hurt until I started to run, then they felt heavy… not really sore, but achy.

The nice thing about this is that I knew it would pass as I warmed up. And sure enough, it got better as I went further and further… but I wasn’t interested in running easy today, I wanted Tempo!

I ran my 3 mile course down around Volunteer Landing, which is nice because I can take a break at the 1.5 mile split if I want, which I did today. Approaching the 1st Mile Split, I was a little weary that I would have a dismal slow time. Physcologically, I knew that if my time was 8:30 or slower that I would be done with the run. I could tell that I was faster than yesterday, but that was my perception and it could have been that today a 8:45 felt faster than yesterday’s 8:16 first mile.

7:35 and I was surprised. And with that, I knew that I needed to slow down or I would walking the last 1.5 miles back. What was nice and expected was that my other split times weren’t all that bad either.

7:54 (mile 2) and I had a little walking break (stopped the watch) to go get water. It wasn’t until I go there that I remembered the water had been turned of months ago… GRR

9:45 (mile 3) some needed walking breaks, but my run up the Lake Loudon hill was strong… I basically cruised the entire way up, tired afterwards but a great showing.

So tomorrow will be a rest day. I need to figure out my training schedule for the next few months so that i know what I should be doing, or if I don’t what I can do in place of it. Plus it will help me with defining my running goals for 2007…

December Monthly Recap

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:41:36 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Races:
None

Mileage:
24.25 miles in 6 different sessions. They were all lunchtime runs leaving from the Aquatic Center but did involve a number of different routes.
2006 Total Mileage:
665.3 miles for the year. This made it the most mileage for any year since I started recording mileage in 1999 and was just about 100 miles over the next highest annual mileage set back in 2002.
Upcoming Races:
01/27/2007 Calhouns 10miler

MorPHinG

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:25:58 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

11 Days and no running… the intention was there but no execution of any plans. So I greeted today’s run at lunch anticipating it much like you meeting your aunt that you haven’t seen in years. You’re not sure how kind Time was with her and you don’t know if she’s going to smother you with big wet kisses and pinches on the cheek or if she’s going to give you a “My Aunt Rocks” shirt. Either way, you’re probably not going to like it.

It’s pretty dead here on campus as school is not in session, not until next week. So, it was quiet when I headed out on my Market Square Fab 4 Course. I could tell that I was a little labored in my running but I was running at a semi-comfortable pace. Semi meaning that I wasn’t pushing it, but talking would have been a little difficult.

So, I was thinking that my first mile was going to be about 9:20 because that’s what it felt like and I knew that I had lost some of my speed. My prize: Mile 1 in 8:12.

The weather was cool (around 45 degrees), so it was a comfortable run and surprisingly enough there were plenty of people walking around on Market Square. I was glad that I didn’t do the 5 miles that I had wanted to do just because things go tough at the end.

Mile 2: 8:27
Mile 3: 8:37
Mile 4: 9:51 (I walked at a few places here and there)
Total Time: 35:11 (8:48 avg)
It was very nice to decompress while running. I almost wish that it had been like 10 miles so that I would have time to think more. While you are running, your mind wanders from subject to subject. sometimes seeing things ahead of you will spark ideas or past happenings. SO during the course of a mile, you think of many different things.

One of the things that I was thinking about during my run was Morphing or rather a proverbial Metamorphosis and why not starting thinking and talking about it now?

First Thing is my Job - I have an unfullfilling position. Unfullfilling because it’s not something that I am passionate about and for what I do mainly 95% of the time, I don’t need any of my 3 college degrees. The position’s great for working on the website and writing entries for this blog, but it’s not good for my soul. So, I am looking, not very aggressively but I am looking. And, it doesn’t have to be here in Knoxville… since Jen can work her MK anywhere, we are not bound by geography.

Second is my Running - I don’t run enough. I don’t run enought to reach the time goals that I set for myself. And I realize is that I don’t know enough. Sure I have a good concept of what it takes to run, but alot of the information, I have to reference, I don’t have it memorized. Also, I can plan for someone else (like Susan) but I can’t do a thing for myself. I guess it is hard to give yourself advice.
Third is my Writing - The first thing that I need to do is work on strengthening my vocabulary so that I can use SAT words like Pam and Michelle. Then I need to work on my grammar so that I don’t look like I write like someone struggled through English. I did take Creative Writing twice in High School as well as Journalism.

I need to find patience to proofread too…

Fourth is my Health - I need to eat better, or rather smarter… case in point. I have all this specialty Cadbury Chocolate from American Samoa and so instead of eating it in moderation or (better yet) giving it to someone else so they could practice Conservation of Energy (i.e. calories), I decided that I should eat large quantities of it now so that I could get rid of it. I realized that I was not being smart when my son was telling me to “Wake Up” at the computer because daddy was napping and it was only 4:30pm.

It would be ~~foolish~~ incongruous of me to give up all those things cold turkey. I mean, how I am supposed to survive without Chocolate, Coffee, Beer and Diet Coke? I just shouldn’t have eaten the entire bag of Cadbury Holiday Chocolates that were like ‘Mini Eggs Lite’.

Fifth is my Photography - I mentioned before that I would love a DSLR. I am going to revamp my photoblog, actually, I have signed up for shutterchance but have yet to upload more than one picture. I’m thinking about taking our workshop or 4th bedroom and making a make-shift studio. My Younger child is so photogenic, that I took about 10 shots of him with my 35mm in 5 minutes on Saturday. Had I had a digital camera, it would have been more like 500 pictures. Rae had mentioned (in a comment) that she and Brent love their Canon 20D, another rave for the 20D. We’ll have to see about the camera though… It would be awesome to catch someone who is upgrading their camera…

If you are looking for all my cool end of the year running stats, that’s the subject of my upcoming podcast…

More or Less

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 02:21:42 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Somehow, I have managed NOT to run for the past 8 days… since the Thursday before Christmas, my running shoes have been lonely. It’s not a matter of not thinking about running. Quite the contrary, I have thought ALOT about running. From needing to register for the Calhoun’s 10 miler or wondering how much speed I have actually lost…

The best chance of actually running was last night when Jen was at a class and the kids were asleep… but, there was a box-getting emergency and so that waylaid my plans of getting the kids to slumber and me on the treadmill. No, in 20 minutes, I rallied the troops, loaded them into the van and off to downtown. With Boxes secure, I was given the following command request.

“Daddy, I’m hungry,” my extremely picky eater elder son told me.

“What would you like,” I said thinking that he had no idea what he wanted.

“Pizza” he replied.

Well, like EF Hutton, when The Elder says he wants something specific to eat, he gets it. Well, except for “Daddy’s Cereal (aka Count Chocula)” or “Daddy Juice (aka Diet Coke)” and some other things that are Daddy Foods… they are usually NOT nutritious.

So, we went to Sam’s for dinner… $4.75 for dinner for a party of 3. Score.

Anyway, no running. Not sure if I can get it done tonight or tomorrow morning either. Perhaps Sunday.

I think I have “sort of” decided on a Digital SLR. I am leaning toward the Olympus E-500. Thanks to Michael at Boy and His Bike, giving me the heads up on the Olympus.

1) It’s only $699 (or so) for a 2-lens kit

2) Olympus received the JD Power award for DSLR over $600

3) The Canon XTi although more pixels, is not a highly touted as the Canon Rebel XT, which can be found but not a cheaper 2 lens kit

4) Nikon D80 which is SAH-WEET-TAH! Is twice the price.

So, the only problem is that Santa has already made his way back home… So I guess it’s up to me to save the pennies…

Well, until I get some more time…

The Merriment of the Day after Christmas

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 04:08:03 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

I hope that everyone had a great day. Everything in the P3 universe went just fine… no broken bones, full tummies, and just a couple of fights over the new toys. But what do you expect…

Pictures may or may not be coming up and I do have a You Tubesday video but it’s not ready yet. It won’t be for the squeamish either… MUHAHAHAHA
No running since Thursday (I’m not quite depressed yet)… just sleeping… and shopping… and editing websites until 4am (twice). Tomorrow we’re going to get the kids pictures taken for our Christmas/Holiday/Winter Card. Should be fun… I’ll be scoping out the camera that their using.

Hey MyCokeRewards players! I got this great email from Coke where I can DOUBLE your investment! That’s right 100% return on those 15digit codes on your specially marked packages of Coca-Cola products. If you have NO idea of what I am talking about and have at least… one maybe two ounces of curiosity, here is my last ~~plea beg~~ request for MyCokeReward points. (I’m now at 406 points)

You can get Double Points from holiday fridge packs and 20 oz bottle caps when you enter your codes on Wednesday, December 28th.**

What I don’t get is that Wednesday is the 27th and the 28th is Thursday, thus I the event is somewhere in the space-time continuum and will have to travel at Warp 9.999 around the sun to get there…

Welcome to 2000 BC

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 03:55:02 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Out of everything I did last Saturday, this was worth some merit.

The scene, Jen was having two facials at the house starting at 2:30pm, so I was going to take the kids out and abound for some holiday fun. So, right after lunch, I start gathering everything that I will need to be out and also be ready for any emergency that might arise. Okay, not all emergencies… just a bathroom emergency.

I have a small bag specifically for this (of course) and so it was loaded, drinks were loaded (but hidden), had snacks and a few toys. I even tried to get Eric to watch a different DVD, but he must watch the video with “Boo Boo Choo Choo” song… over and over and over again. It is his favorite and he loves the one with Thomas and the Jet Engine.

So at about 2:15pm, I let the kids know that we are going out in the van and got their environment conditioning suits, just clothes… and they were playing around in the van. I can hear the hazard flashes going on and off, the doors locking, Ryan laughing, and all kids of other stuff. Next, I proceed to take everything I will need to the van.

I get Ryan buckled in and then Eric. I close the van door and go into get an envelope to mail Stacie’s treats. When I come back I open the door to get in and nothing happens…

Oh crap, the kids are in the van, it’s locked and both are in their carseats.

Slight panic attack… okay, we have spare keys to the minivan don’t we? I think so… let me go check.

When I went inside, I relayed my predicament to Jen. “Guess what? The kids are locked in the van.”

“Eric can unlock the door, but you have to be quick because he clicks it too fast”

“Well, he’s in his carseat…” I added.

“We have talked about this before…,”She started. “We Have?” I interrupted. “Yes, we have, I never leave… [edited]”

OKay, so I find the spare keys, a normal key, a valet key and the clicker-thingy. So, I push the open button… nothing.

“Oh [edited],”I thought, “I am going to have to go and get a new battery and have the kids wait in the van for like an hour or so…”

So, I take the battery out and see it’s a CR2025, I check the Grand Prix spare keys and the clicker battery is a CR 2032 and so that won’t work. I’ll definitely have to go out now, oh great, this is going to mess Jen’s stuff up and I am in hot water.

Then, what you all have been thinking FINALLY donned on me… (see the light bulb illuminating above my head) I have the actual keys… the piece of metal that when inserted into the keyhole will unlock the van.

All I can is that sometimes the answer is right in front of you the entire time, but your thought process can make all the difference…

Of course, since I am so not street smurt and more book smart, I had to find out about the history of key/lock mechanisms… you can entertain yourself, at your own discretion by following this link.

Friday with the kids

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 05:01:35 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Uh, I got the finger pointing on not having an update on the family website about the kids, so I will have to copy some of what I post here… oh screw it, I’ll just leave the details with kids for another day.

At my work, we were given a half day. However, I wasn’t going into the office as I had a pediatrician date with The Younger. Since it in the morning, I just sandbagged the whole “work” thing. The Younger is a small ass kid. He’s 10-25% in height and 5-10% in weight compared to other kids his age. But he’s healthy, smart and FREAKING LOUD!

The boys and I ran a few errands after the doctor’s we went to Sam’s where we experienced a meltdown from The Elder. Headed by the Vet to find Skip’s collar. Collar NOT found, but a new Rabies Tag was secured. Wal-mart for a new collar. Panera for some bagel food. And all this in the torrential downpour of wet weather we had all day long.

Once the kids were down in the evening, Jen and I stayed up until about 4am working on her website. I was able to get the Drupal thing working and so were doing some major updating and transferring files over. In fact, I probably should go work on that…

Gravity@1053′ Episode 005

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 23:01:29 GMT

Originally published at PLANET3RRY. Please leave any comments there.

Episode 005 of Gravity@1053′ is uploaded, if you don’t subscribe to the feed with a podcatcher, you can follow THIS link to download the show the ‘old fashioned’ way.

This show is about Runner’s Safety and includes some important safety tips from the road runners club association (RRCA).