Indoor Biking

Had a chance to try the indoor biking where you hook your road bike up to a power meter and you can see all your stats (RPM, Watts, speed, etc.) real time on the screen. Awesome feedback. Here's some information on how it works. And they said I wouldn't need any of my Physics once I graduated.

Hall of Fame

Interesting that the steroid report on baseball came out the same day as the inductees list for the Rock-and-Roll hall of fame.

Hmmmm... Just thinking... what if we made anyone who used drugs while writing or performing their songs ineligble for the Hall of Fame (like they are talking about in baseball)? Now that's one way to clear a room :-)

Turket Trot review

Oops... almost forgot. I ran the Naperville Turkey Trot on (coincidentally enough) Thanksgiving. It was probably around 35 degrees with some flurries blowing and a good wind out of the NW. I did manage to get under 20:00 (19:07) which was my goal. It's amazing how much faster you can go when you race vs. training. Adrenaline counts for a lot! :-)

Results here...

I'm now "shutting in down" until Spring. No clue what to train for in 2008. It will probably be my first non-Marathon year since 2003.

Too early for this

It's December 12th, waaaaay to early to be this sick of winter. Of course that's what a week of 25 degrees, clouds, and rain,sleet,snow will do to you.

Ouch, 3 months without a post.

Relay 2008?

It occured to me that I need to at least start thinking about doing a relay race in 2008. In 2006 we did Wasatch Back Relay and last year we did "the grand daddy of them all" Hood to Coast. What will 2008 bring? I'll let you know soon.

Go Illini

Big fun at the Illinios - Penn State Football game this weekend. After watching them lose 63-10 (or something like that) two years ago it was nice to see them turn the corner.

Best t-shirt spotted on campus: "Define Girlfriend"

think about it...it's very funny.

Hood To Coast Recap

Wow, what a weekend it was. Here's my unofficial trip report from our first HTC.

Well we really enjoyed ourselves this year at our 2nd relay (Wasatch Back was first) and 1st HTC.

Summary Positives: Awesome running-centered buzz everywhere on the course. Lots of enthusiastic people and the community all know about it. Good organization (except as noted below) and nice volunteers.

Great start line and finish line atmosphere. Great post-party (even if you are too tired to fully participate).

Negatives: Traffic on the course is awful. Exchanges 24-36 were a virtual parking lot. Teams had to send team members ahead with clipboards to the next exchange because their van couldn't get through the traffic. In general every exchange late in the race was screwed up some how with 30 being a major screw up. You would think after 30 years they would have this down a little better or maybe it's the best they can do and they expect us to live with it. (Easy to do when you sell out on the first day).

You also run on more busy roads than I would like. In the rain with no shoulder it got a little dicey. These were roads/conditions I would never run at home due to safety concerns.

It's a shame the course logistics broke down a bit when most of the runners were already grouchy/worn down from lack of sleep. But overall it was a blast. The shared experience and camraderie are incredible. To anyone who has not tried a relay I would strongly recommend it. I would be interested in others impression of the race.

Multnomah falls

Get ready

Pre race lunch

Hood to Coast this weekend

We got a very late start time for this weekends Hood-To_Coast Relay. I should be running my first leg near midnight on Saturday (AM). Oh well, beats 3am.

Neil diamond tribute band rocks

Huey

USA vs. Mexico

Most impressive US Soccer victory that I've seen. Donovan needs to try going to Europe again.

Andy sermons (new low prices)

Andy Stanley is the Senior Pastor at Northpoint Church in Alpharetta. Many moons ago I used to attend this church when we lived in Atlanta (and we met in a warehouse). Anyway, I've always enjoyed Andy's teaching but it has been difficult to keep up with sermons unless you want to order a lot of CDs which didn't really work for me.

Now lot's of Andy's sermons are available as MP3s (for only $1) at http://www.northpoint.org/messages There is also a free podcast of many sermons as well. Give a few a listen during your next bus/train/car/plane ride.

Golf, the anti-running

Except for the occasional day when the stars align and almost all my drives are straight it is almost impossible (for me) to have a better day on the golf course than on the running trail (yes I do like to golf). It's just rather than release mental stress golf seems to add to it. As a matter of fact I probably should schedule to put in a few miles after a round just to get my BP back to normal :-)

Sam Adams Variety Pack

Nice work by the folks at Sam Adams Brewery for finally putting together a variety pack where I like all 6 assortments. Brown Ale, Black Lager, Scotch Ale, Honey Porter, Boston Ale and "Regular". Pick one up before they go away.

Boston recap

The course kicked my butt bad. I was sub 1:40 at the half and essentially limped in the last 4 miles. I need to get more flexible to have better legs at the end. Anyway, thats irrelevant now that I'm giving of marathons for a while (I think).

Hey, a least his best friends wife wasn't in the car with him

Officials say St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was drunk, transporting marijuana, talking on the phone and not wearing a seat belt when he died in a vehicle crash

Looks dicey

From me

Boston Topography

A detail view of the hills for Boston.

My Favorite Running Links

Here's a quick list of my running "sources"

www.halhigdon.com - Pick a distance, any distance; Hal can help
www.runnersworld.com - Especially discussion forums
http://www.flocasts.com/flotrack/houston.php?n=123 - Cool (low quality production) video of Ryan Hall breaking (smashing actually) the American half-marathon record.