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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Worlds collide: Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt enjoyed rides in the shuttle simulator last week when they (along with Jason Lane and Chris Sampson) visited JSC. I didn't go to see them, but I think it's cool that they were here! And now I can say that I've sat in the same chair as Lance Berkman. Heh.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Bini is the new ARD Support trainee, and I'm her primary mentor. She took her first run ever at the end of the sim last night, and I got really nervous -- as if it was my first run all over again. I realized that training her is going to be fun.

I got home at 10 (these late night sims seem to be showing up more and more on the schedule as the training division tries to accomodate missions plus a zillion training objectives) and my new bike trainer was sitting outside my door. Woohoo! I opened it up and took everything out of the box, and immediately got frustrated. Why is it that the more expensive the item is, the fewer clear instructions it comes with?? There were only a handful of separate pieces, but it took me more than half an hour to get everything together correctly.

I must admit here that bikes intimidate me, for reasons I can't quite explain. I have a perception that they're really complicated, and really easy to screw up. I don't think it's true, but I can't quite get over it. I was terrified that I'd set the trainer up wrong, strip one of the screws, or put my bike on incorrectly. To work with the trainer, the rear wheel skewer on my bike had to be replaced with the one that came with the trainer, and I had a mental image of all the gears just falling apart in my hands at the moment I took the old skewer out.

Of course that didn't happen, and Jose gave me weird looks the whole time. In his attempts to help, I felt like he was rushing me, and I was unreasonably worried that he'd mess something up. Finally he sat back and smiled and said: "So you do slow down when you care about something. Just like I wanted to go slow when I first set up my iPod. You want to check everything twice before you set up your trainer." He looked rather satisfied. I guess he's right.

The trainer is pretty cool, though I only rode it for a couple minutes last night (mainly because I needed to put air in my tires; the slightly deflated tires made the wheel slip occasionally on the roller). One problem I immediately realized is that my speed sensor is on the front wheel, which isn't moving, and therefore I have no feedback on my speed and distance. I'll have to switch the sensor; I hope the wire is long enough. The trainer does cause a fairly low-level hum and vibration, so it'll be interesting to see if I get any complaints from the downstairs neighbors.

If I can't get the sensor moved tonight, I'm going to do my workout anyway. I'm planning on 10 miles, which, assuming 15 mph (which is on the slow side) whould take me 40 minutes. So I'll just put the bike in a medium gear and go for time.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Ah, there's nothing like unsolicited advice. You ask for opinions and advice about bikes; you get opinions and advice about finances. Thanks to those who commented, but I'm very well aware that money doesn't grow on trees and that I can't buy a house with a bike.

Even if I don't buy a new bike, there are a number of maintenance items that need to be done to my current bike, including buying aerobars and new tires -- aerobars for the triathlon, and tires because my current tires are four years old and worn out and bordering on unsafe. That's the minimum necessary. I've also been thinking about upgrading the components since the bike was 6 months old, because I've currently got the lowest level components and have had a lot of problems with them staying true and aligned. In one triathlon, I couldn't get into my lowest gears because the chain would fall off if I went there because the gearing had gotten so far out-of-alignment; it was in Austin, so yes, I needed the low gears.

So, considering that there is already money to be spent, and that I was already planning to spend at least that base amount, and considering that Bike Barn has a trade-in program, it may very well be possible to get a brand new bike for only a couple hundred dollars more than I'd spend on upgrades. A couple hundred dollars is only a portion of my tax refund, which still leaves plenty for savings. To me, that's getting close to a no-brainer if I can find the bike I want at the right price.

I know that people think I spend money with abandon, but believe it or not, I do actually live within my means.

Speaking of bikes, my trainer arrives today! Thank goodness -- I can't take much more of the stationary bike in the gym. I had to ride a couple miles on the recumbant version last night until I could snag one of the four upright bikes to finish my workout. I did 21 miles total in about 1:10. The stationary bike obviously requires a different level of effort than a real bike; if I did 21 miles in 1:10 on a real road, it wouldn't be unreasonable, but it'd be on the fast side for me.

No workout today. It'll be the first day I've missed, but there wasn't much of a way around it short of getting up at 6 a.m...and yeah, not so much. I know a lot of people are morning runners, etc, but not me. I was here by 9, will leave at 3:30 to go to class, and then as soon as I get out of class I'm coming back to work to watch the ascent sim from another position's backroom. Tomorrow all my boxes will be checked and I will be a certified flight controller! Finally.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Here's one for my triathlon-saavy readers like Jill, Johnny, and Bunnygirl...

I've got a sizeable tax refund coming this year, a bit unexpectedly, which would allow me to upgrade from my current road bike (a 2003 Specialized Sequoia) to either 1) a nicer road bike or 2) a triathlon bike. I've been thinking about both options lately. Of course there is a third option, which is to simply keep the bike I have right now and have been riding for 4 years.

Biggest question: what, really, are the advantages of a tri bike? You always have to ride in the aero position, right? I've never done that before, which makes me wary. I have issues with back and neck soreness already, and it seems like being forced into the aero position all the time would be worse. Then again -- maybe the aero position is better, ergonomically, and my back and neck wouldn't get as sore! I don't know.

Sub-question: If I do keep my current bike, there are some upgrades I'd like to make -- new tires, add some aerobars so I at least have the option of getting into aero position, and upgrade the components from bottom-of-the-line Shimano to a nicer, smoother, higher-quality set. Each of those will cost me some cash, especially upgrading components, which makes me wonder if I might not be better off just upgrading the whole bike.

Having done a bit of reading on my own, I believe that what I really want to do is upgrade to a nicer road bike. I'm not fast enough to be competitive and probably never will be, so my desire for comfort usually outweights a desire for maximum speed. For me, I'd rather be comfortable during the ride than gain an extra mile per hour. Unless someone can convince me that there are clear advantages to a tri bike that go beyond just the racing (since I ride for fitness as well), I'm leaning towards upgrading to a new road bike. I'd like to check out some of the women-specific designs, in particular the Specialized Vita Multi-Sport looks appealing.

Thoughts?

Monday, January 29, 2007

Someone (Bill?) had it on their blog a while ago, but just to followup: the Krispy Kreme challenge was held at NC State on Saturday. Run 2 miles from campus to the Krispy Kreme shop, eat a dozen doughnuts, run 2 miles back. The winner finished in 24:31. I must admit that I would not even attempt it. (Thanks Brian O for the link.)

Five years ago when I finished school, my mom flew out to San Francisco and we drove from there to Houston to get me situated down here permanently. Sometime after that trip, she told me that she'd been a little worried and nervous about the trip, mainly because we'd be together non-stop for a week and a half, which was something we hadn't done in years. And when I was at Tech, sometimes I was so stressed out that even my trips home and interactions with the family were less-than-relaxing. Now that my brother has come and gone, I can admit that I was actually a little worried about his visit -- for similar reasons.

I like my brother and we get along just fine, but let's be honest -- we haven't spent significant time around each other since I graduated from high school more than 10 years ago. When I left for college, he was 13. I worried that it would just be weird having him visit. What I forgot is that he's now 23, out on his own in the working world, and is an adult just like the rest of my friends and siblings.

Of course, just as the drive with mom turned out to be spectacular, I shouldn't have worried about having Brian in town for the weekend. We had a nice time hanging out and watching a lot of college basketball. I asked him yesterday what he would have done if he had gone home to D.C. for the weekend -- "mess around on the computer and watch basketball?" I wondered. "Yeah, pretty much," he replied.

On Saturday we had to go to BW3 to see the Carolina game (Brian is a two-time Carolina grad, bachelor's and master's) because despite the fact that it was nationally televised on CBS, the local station decided to show a telethon. Argh! Fortunately BW3 had it on a satellite feed of CBS and even put it up on one of the big screens for us. Awesome. That night we hung out at Gavin and Jen's and tried to play Guitar Hero on their new TV, but were thwarted because I brought a cord from my old Playstation and it didn't fit into my new Playstation. Stupid Sony.

Yesterday we had lunch with Becca at Mely's to satisfy Brian's request for Tex-Mex, and then hung out until Jose got back from Corpus just in time to ride with us to the airport. Hooray -- Jose has now met every member of my immediate family. In the end, Brian was actually a fantastic and considerate houseguest. When he did some laundry yesterday, he even washed the sheets and the towel he used! Mom and Dad take note: Brian can be civilized. :)

Sunday, January 28, 2007

My bike trainer can't come soon enough (it arrives on Tuesday). This morning I planned to do a nice long bike ride, but I woke up to the weather station a half mile away from my apartment reading 44 degrees, with a wind chill of 31. I definitely ain't got the cycling wear to battle a wind chill of 31 -- and more when you consider that I'd be riding. And the stupid Gilruth gym is closed on Sundays. And my apartment complex doesn't have a stationary bike. ARGH.

If you asked me what my biggest training hurdle would be, I would have guessed motivation. My motivation has a bad habit of coming and going with my mental state (tired, hungry, bored, etc). But here I am mere weeks into training and the weather keeps thwarting my plans! Rain, wind, cold, pool hours. With my life as busy as it is, I really need to be able to do my workouts when I plan to -- I needed to do my bike this morning. It's nicer outside now, and warmer, but I no longer have the time or the daylight!

I didn't feel much like running after my 10-miler yesterday, so I substituted a good long swim instead. I did 2000 yards total: 500 warmup, 200 kick, 100 warmup, 500 free, 5x100 free, and 200 cooldown. I did that in about 42 minutes, which is right at my goal time for the Half Ironman -- I hope to do the 1.2 miles (2112 yards) in 45-50 minutes. Take away the pushing-off-the-wall benefit of the pool but add the wetsuit benefit of the HI swim, and I think that's reasonable.

Anyway, this week's schedule is going to need some re-working -- no bike today, and I'm busy until 10 p.m. on Tuesday. On top of that, I may be going to Corpus next weekend. Here's my tentative rescheduling of this week:

Mon - 20-25 mile bike
Tues - 4-mile run in the a.m. if time allows
Wed - brick with 10 mile bike, 2 mile run
Thu - 5 mile run
Fri - rest -- OR 4-mile run if I can't make the 6K on Saturday
Sat - Buffalo Wallow 6K -- OR rest if I can't make it
Sun - 30-40 miles bike on trainer (after dark) hopefully ?!? if I get back to Houston in time...

Saturday, January 27, 2007

The daily training update: I ran 10.15 miles on the very, very wet Seabrook trails. Apparently running over there after more than two weeks of rain with only two clear days, including more rain this morning, was not the best idea I've ever had. (I didn't even think about it -- I was so excited to just be outside!) Within the first mile, I'd decided to just enjoy it, and made little effort to avoid the puddles from then on. In the end, it wasn't a big deal.

Like I said, I was excited to be outside, but I wasn't really excited to be running. I just wasn't feeling it today, and my post-run condition agrees -- I'm just as stiff and sore as I was two weeks ago after the Half, and I ran 3 miles less today! Ah well. I did my 11/1 run/walk thing and covered the distance in 1:52:16, or just over an 11:00/mile pace. I did have one freak mile (#7) that I did in 10:46, even with a minute of walking.

The silver lining is that if I can do 11:00 pace on a day when I'm feeling pretty apathetic about running, I feel pretty confident that I can do 13:45 pace on April 1 when I'm tired from swimming and biking, but excited to be on the last leg of my Half Ironman. That pace is equivalent to a 3-hour half marathon, which is my goal for that day.

Friday, January 26, 2007

I am mere days away from getting all of my paperwork signed and officially becoming a certified ARD Support Officer. I just have to watch one more sim from the Booster backroom (a different position, but their problems become our problems so they are important to us).

This morning was my coworker's Ascent FDO Cert Sim. This was a big deal, I mean BIG DEAL, with capital letters. Ascent FDO cert sims happen, at best, once every couple years. This particular coworker is a great guy and a great flight controller, and we all knew he would do well. But earlier this week we all had fun teasing him, because he's a bit high-strung. By Tuesday, we were talking about scraping him off the ceiling, and yesterday I thought his head might explode. ;)

He passed with flying colors, of course, and the flight directors sang his praises and he'll be working his first launch this summer. Becoming an Ascent FDO is a 10-year process, so it's the culmination of many, many years of work and training. Pretty cool to think about.

Because it was his cert sim, and he is the front room controller that I answer to, it meant that I saw a bunch of difficult cases as well. I left feeling almost as if I'd just had my own cert sim all over again. I actually did well and was pretty happy with my performance; it was personal confirmation that I'm ready to do this job for STS-117. But what happened next made me feel even better.

First, the newly-minted Ascent FDO thanked me for doing such a great job today and helping make things easier for him. It's always good to hear praise from your team lead, and know that he's happy with your performance.

But then something happened that has never happened before. I sit in the back room (right now anyway), a place that doesn't usually catch the attention of higher-ups like the flight director. This afternoon I'd just gotten back from lunch when one of my managers walked in. He'd been watching the sim this morning as an evaluator, along with an already-certified FDO and an Ascent Flight Director (in addition to the one flight director who was working the sim and the two other flight directors who were training via watching).

"The flight directors were very impressed with you this morning," he said. "And they scolded me for letting you become a GPO instead of a FDO. Just thought you'd like to know."

So yeah, that pretty much TOTALLY made my week.

I ran 4 miles last night -- outside! Hooray for no treadmill! After all the rain, the stars looked particularly bright, shiny, and beautiful. I don't remember the time, but it was just under an 11:00/mile pace, so something like 43:xx. Today I am doing nothing! Rest day! Woohoo!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

This morning I woke up and there was a strange yellow ball in the sky. I'm told that it's called "the sun." Oh sun, I missed you.

On the Chronicle's site this morning, a particular headline caught my eye: "At 161 pounds, Tyra Banks says 'fat' pictures are hurtful." It seems that Tyra Banks, yes that Tyra Banks, the absolutely gorgeous model, has gained some weight since her modeling days. She now weighs 161 pounds, and has fluctuated between 148 and 162 since retiring from her modeling career. I find this notable for two reasons.

1) Tyra Banks is beautiful.
2) Tyra Banks, former model, weighs 161 pounds.

I've long said that all men -- and even a lot of women -- have no idea what normal weight for a woman is. People think women are supposed to weigh something like 120 pounds regardless of body shape, body type, height, or lifestyle. Which is funny because I'm 5'8" and weigh 185. I could stand to lose 15-20 pounds because my body fat percentage is higher than it should be; at my lowest point in the past decade I was 169, and I felt very good there. Anyway, suffice it to say that I haven't weighed 120 pounds since I was about 10 years old. To weigh what "normal" is, I'd have to lose a full third of my weight.

A third! People, that is just crazy. I wonder what it will take for people to start getting a realistic idea of weight.

I've been pondering this issue even more lately as I do some research on wetsuits for the Half Ironman. Sizing for wetsuits is determined via two things: height and weight. I've looked at many different brands -- Orca, Blue Seventy, Zoot, Xterra, etc -- and while my height is always in one of the ranges specified, my weight never is. For every single one of them, their specifications list the largest size as covering something like "145-163" or "155-170" or "160+" or something else that, while called "extra large" or even "extra large/Athena," is not really extra large.

Now, I'm chubby but not fat. And triathletes as a whole are a pretty skinny bunch of people. But I do know people who do races like this who are larger than me. What the heck do they wear??

Anyway. I suppose that's enough ranting about the absurd weight standards for women and the ineffectiveness of sizing things based on height/weight. Last night I rode 15 miles on the stationary bike. This is the first time I've ever ridden the bikes at Gilruth and I found one major problem -- they are too close to the front wall, thus too close to the TVs. So you end up having to look up at an odd angle, which leaves your eyes feeling really strange after a while. Hmm. They also have a half-and-half bike selection -- 4 recumbant bikes and 4 upright bikes. The four "good ones" (i.e. not recumbant) were taken when I arrived, so I rode 5 miles on the recumbant bike. After that, one of the upright bike freed up so I quickly switched machines for the remaining 10 miles. It took me about 54 minutes, which seems pretty well calibrated to what I would do on the road (where I average somewhere between 15 and 18 mph depending on weather and wind conditions).

Jose left this morning to spend the weekend at home, so I'm all alone. While it will be nice to get some me-time to clean up my apartment and get some little projects done, it always feels weird when he goes away. I mean, who will I eat dinner with? Who will laugh at me when I imitate the crazy dance that Stephen Colbert did on last night's Conan rerun? Who will play the bass line on Guitar Hero II while I play lead? (By the way, that game is awesome.)

Oh well, he will be back on Sunday, and my brother will be here in the meantime. Last night I was worrying about what I would do to keep Brian entertained for the weekend (a habit that is totally blamed on my mom), especially when I need to do my long run and long bike. Then I remembered that this is the same Brian that played Burnout (a race car game) for like 10 hours straight while we were home for Christmas. Something tells me he'll entertain himself.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

My brother is coming to visit this weekend. He called yesterday and said "What are you doing this weekend? I have to be in Nebraska later this week, and next week. Instead of flying back to DC for the weekend, I thought I'd come to Houston." I was a little confused, since he has to fly either way, but maybe he just wants to go somewhere different. In any case -- my brother is coming to visit this weekend! That will be fun. He's only been here once, when I was still a co-op in...2000? I think. I have no idea what we'll do, since I didn't have any plans, but I hope Brian doesn't mind if I abandon him for my long run and bike. Maybe he'll be interested in going to the zoo on Saturday with the photobloggers. We'll see.

I just hope he's not coming full of hopes of meeting Jose, since Jose will be in Corpus. :(

I had class last night. We had to show-and-tell a piece of typography that taught us something about the subject. I took one of my Harry Potter books, to prove the point that fonts are a large part of identity, so we should choose them wisely such that they enhance the feel and message and tone. Can you imagine Harry Potter typed in plain old Times New Roman or Helvetica? Or even something like Comic Sans? I think not! I could type anything in the "Harry Potter font" and though you might not recognize it from the books and movies, you'd probably react with a "...something about that looks familiar..." Why? Because it's become part of Harry Potter's identity. It was well-designed. I'm not saying that the books became popular because of the font (though wouldn't that be funny!), but I am saying that the font enhances the book. For less-well-known books, font (and overall cover design) is even more important. Just because we're told not to judge a book by its cover doesn't mean that we follow that advice.

I ran last night after class; the cold rain again forced me inside onto the treadmill. Whennnnnn is it going to stop raining? If I wanted more than a week straight of rain, I would've moved to Seattle. Anyway -- I did 4 miles on the treadmill in 45:48. That's a mile at 5 mph, followed by a mile at 5.5 mph, and repeat. I run slower on the treadmill, and I am finally just deciding to accept that. I don't know why (temperature? boredom? just less comfortable?), but I am always slower. And seem to fatigue faster. Who knows. On the biking front, my new bike trainer is in transit, but UPS says the scheduled delivery is next Tuesday. Argh! I really thought it would be here by the weekend. Bummer.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I just got an email at the HARRA webmaster address that says (typos included):

"This is bad if your websitehas not been updated. My god get with it or let some one else do the job, No excuse"

It was in the junk folder, but so was a legitimate email. So I can't tell if it's spam, or if someone is actually upset. I must admit that I'm not quite sure what they're getting at here, since the website has been updated far more frequently in the past 6 months than it had been before. I suppose if they have a legitimate complaint, or care to point out what they're looking at that needs to be updated, then they'll email back a more complete comment.

Oh well, people are weird.

Work is going horribly slowly this week. I'm down to mere hours of ARD tasks still to do, which means that hopefully I'll be officially certified by the end of the week. The downside to finishing, however, is that it means that I begin a month-long period of reading, reading, and more reading. I won't start sims until March at the very earliest. Sigh. Why does there always have to be a downside to starting a new job? Why can't I just jump in?

Becca and Jen joined me for swimming last night. I did 1250 yards in about 25 minutes. I need to go buy a cheapo watch that I can use

Next time, I'm going to try to remember to take a thermometer to measure the temperature of the pool water. It's on the chilly side -- cold when I first jump in, then perfect as I swim my laps (I don't get hot), but then it gets cold again as soon as I stop. I need a calibration point to get an idea of what "average water temperature is 68-70 degrees, wetsuits are highly recommended" really means. Becca and Jen both independently guessed about 75 degrees, which isn't much warmer than the Half Ironman predicted temperatures. In that case, I should be fine with a sleeveless wetsuit.

I also looked up exactly where the swim course is. The name of the body of water is Offatts Bayou, but as you can tell from the map, it's less of a bayou and more of an inlet! Seems to me that the temperature should be pretty similar to the temperature of the Gulf, or maybe a few degrees warmer. Fortunately Gulf temperatures are readily available and list the average March and April temperatures as 61 and 71 degrees, respectively. So 68-70 seems like a good prediction.

Tuesdays are looking to be fairly hectic this spring. I have class from 4-7, which means coming in to work early and going to the gym late. I'm already looking forward to the weekend to get some headway on my long to-do list of stuff outside of work. Jose won't be around this weekend, which is sad, and yet means that I might actually clean my apartment... I'm going to stop this train of thought before I get too overwhelmed by all that I need to do.

Monday, January 22, 2007

I just enabled authentication for comments on this blog. Hopefully this means I'll be able to avoid most comment spam (the spammers seem to be re-finding this blog after a brief respite when I upgraded my installation). What this means as far as I can tell is that if you register (see link in the comments section), your comment will be published immediately. Otherwise, it'll be held until I approve it and/or put you on my list of trusted commenters.

If you have any difficulties commenting, let me know.

Monday, January 22, 2007

I'm always indifferent about these blog tag games, but this one seems interesting enough that I'll do as June says and answer this little quiz.

So: I have to list 6 weird things about me or my personality and then tag 6 people to do the same. Except I'm not going to tag anyone at the end; you can just do it if you want.

1) I'm an excellent swimmer and have been swimming since before I can remember -- but I'm scared of deep water. Something about knowing that a huge volume of water is below me, filled with who-knows-what kind of weird alien sea creatures, freaks me out. When we went to Lake Tahoe last year for skiing and had dinner on the shore of the lake, I couldn't help but think about how that lake is something like 1000 feet deep, and how I'd be freaked out to be on a boat in the middle of it. I'd go into space, but I would definitely not go in one of those submersible thingys with the big bubble window. Scary.

2) Along a similar vein, I have an irrational fear of drains, especially pool drains. Don't know why; I must've read a story when I was a kid about somebody getting sucked in or something. The Clear Lake rec center pool (that I've just joined) makes me a little anxious because one end of the pool is 13 feet deep (see weird thing #1), and there are two big drains. Surrounded by dirt and stuff. And the concrete is all discolored. And they freak me out!! I know this fear is irrational, so I deal with it, but I'd be lying to say that it's not bubbling under the surface.

3) I think Jello is disgusting -- the pudding is fine, but not the day-glo colored, slightly transparent, jiggly stuff. Something about all the jiggling makes me want to hurl, and the slimy texture doesn't help matters. The few times I've eaten Jello, I've had to consciously suppress my gag reflex to get it down.

4) You know that machine at the eye doctor that blows a puff of air into your eye? I don't know what it's checking for, but I like it that machine. Yes, I said I like it.

5) Every time I get on a plane, especially if I'm sitting near the engine, I imagine a turbine blade coming off and slicing through the cabin. Never any other kind of disaster -- just that one. I know those things are shielded pretty well, and that the chances of a blade coming off, and coming off such that it goes back towards the fuselage, are minimal. But I still wonder about it. Did you know that on that Aloha Airlines flight in 1988 where the top half of the fuselage ripped off in-flight, some of the passengers actually saw cracks in the metal when they boarded the plane, and just didn't mention it because they assumed it was ok? If I ever see cracks on an airplane or engine cowling, I am SO telling someone.

6) When I get out of the shower, I always dry off in the same way. Even before I get the towel, I squeeze as much water as I can out of my hair, then wipe the extra dribbles of water off my arms and chest. Then I get the towel, dry my hair and face, then upper body, then I dry the bottom of each foot as I step out of the shower and onto the bathmat. I know there's a mat, but I still dry my feet first. Then legs. Then hair again, and finally I'm done.

p.s. One more!

7) I am totally, absurdly, beyond a reasonable level anal-retentive about grammar, spelling, typography, and handwriting. If you have messy handwriting, don't fill out invitations by hand -- get them printed! If you know you can't spell -- get a proofreader (and not an automated spell checker). Blogs are one thing, and I can hold my tongue for informal communications (and I make mistakes myself, I admit), but overall I am absurdly picky about that stuff.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Weekend workout recap:

On Saturday, I swam 1000 yards in 20 minutes. Either I've just gotten faster somehow, or the pool is short. I dunno. Breakdown was 300 yards warmup, 10x50 with 10 seconds recovery, and 200 yards cooldown. Lap swim hours on the weekend are limited -- 5:00 - 6:00 -- but I was the only one there at 5. One other woman came in halfway through my swim. They have open swim hours earlier in the afternoon; I'll have to check it out and see if lap swimming is doable during those hours.

I drove home, changed, and immediately jumped on the treadmill for 4 miles in 48:00. Must've looked like I was extremely sweaty, since my hair was all wet! I wore the running skirt I got at Luke's Locker last weekend before the half marathon; it was my first run with the skirt. I had some doubts about how well it would work, since the shorts underneath were not very long and, as previously mentioned, I don't have particularly skinny thighs. I even took a pair of shorts just in case I needed to change mid-run, but I'm happy to report that the skirt felt surprisingly good! Not sure I'd do a long run in it, but for shorter runs, sure. So the biggest problem in the run turned out to be not the skirt, but the sketchy treadmill in my apartment complex gym. I can't explain it, but it just felt weird.

Today I was supposed to bike 30 miles, and I had plenty of time to do that -- but only before 11 a.m. since I had committments from then until after dark. Alas, the weather was still bleak, cold, and wet and I couldn't bike! Argh! Of course the weather was finally looking good (sun, oh glorious sun!) at 5:30 when I got home -- with not enough time before dark to do a bike ride. So at the suggestion of Steeeve, I substituted a 6-mile run with a pickup towards the end. I wasn't particularly looking forward to the sketchy treadmill, so I did 12+ mind-numbing laps of my apartment complex. (When I buy a house, I am SO making sure that it has access to at least a 3-mile route.) Anyway, one lap of my apartment is ever-so-close to a half mile -- it's 0.49 miles. So what I really did is 6 x 0.98 miles, plus a little bit at the end to make it an even 6 miles. Splits for the 0.98 mile repeats were 10:33, 10:41, 10:43, 10:22, 9:32, and 10:17, with 1:10 for an additional 0.12 at the very end. Good run, and the laps actually weren't quite as annoying as I thought they'd be.

Weekend non-workout recap coming later...

Friday, January 19, 2007

I'm going to need a wetsuit for the Half Ironman. They say the water will be 68-70 degrees and wetsuits are highly encouraged (and if they're allowed, I should wear one -- they make you faster). The problem is that I have no idea what to get! And triathlon wetsuits ain't cheap!

I'm not sure how much I'm willing to spend, and I'm not sure what size I am. But my biggest question is: sleeves or no sleeves? I read somewhere that sleeves are really for water below 60 degrees. But if I'm buying a wetsuit, a part of me says that I might as well get one with sleeves in case I decide to do any other cold water triathlons someday...

If any of you out there have an opinion, let me know!

Friday, January 19, 2007

When I see the temperature around 40 degrees, the thought of running outside always makes me shiver. Then I get out there, and remember that 40 degrees is freaking ideal for running. Case in point: last night. I think it's the first truly "cold" weather run that I've done all year.

4.01 miles - 40:07 - 10:00/mile
Splits: 10:20, 10:13, 10:01, 9:33

I started out not paying attention to pace, and just running comfortably. As I passed through mile 1, I realized that I was moving along at a pretty good clip and not feeling very tired. I chalked it up to going faster because I needed to warm up! (I wore my hat and gloves and long sleeve shirt; it was a little too much clothing, but I kept it all on anyway.) So I kept going. I passed through mile 2 pretty comfortably as well, breathing hard but not so hard that I couldn't have had a short conversation. By the time I'd reached mile 3, the average pace reading on my Garmin, which had started out around 10:20, had fallen to 10:10. When I noticed at 3.5 that it was 10:08, I thought "heck with it, let's see if I can average an even 10!" So I took off for the last half mile, and made it.

It felt good. I hadn't planned to run fast, and the odd part is that the 10:00 average didn't feel completely horrible -- only the last half mile when I was closer to 9:00 pace! I was in a good mood for the rest of the night. And I'm still in a good mood today, because it's my day off! No running, no swimming, no biking, just Friday night and dinner and fun.

In response to my little running pace math problem yesterday, both Nick and Jose both solved it independently for me. Nick even left work late because he spent 20 minutes writing a Matlab script! It comes down to the fact that minutes per mile = 60 / mph. It's not a linear relationship. I probably could have figured that out myself, but it was way more fun to have someone else obsess about it. :)

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Everyone who ran the marathon should read this article on the Runner's World website: Kristin Armstrong writing about Tour de France king Lance's real reaction to his first marathon last November in New York.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

I have a fairly lengthy post churning around my head about the Half Ironman, my hopes and worries, and why I want to do it in the first place. But I don't feel like writing it all right now.

I am ready for all the Resolution Runners -- the people that decided to start running as a New Year's resolution thing -- to just give up already and stop taking up all the machines at the gym. Ha! I know, I know, I should support them, but let's be honest -- there's a reason the gym is most crowded in January, and there's a reason that it drops off quickly after that first month.

Anyway, once again I didn't have my cold weather clothes with me last night, mainly because running in very cold temperatures seems to do a number on my lungs and leaves me coughing all night. I planned to run inside on the treadmill, and I had to wait 10 minutes for a free machine! The gym has about a dozen of them (I'm guessing at the number, but it's close) and they were all full. All the ellipticals were full too. I was annoyed.

I did end up getting on eventually. Last night was fish night and the debut of Gavin and Jen's new HDTV, and I'd already told them I'd be a little late, but with the waiting for the treadmill, I knew it might make me even later. "Oh well, I'll just cut this run short," said my head. Honestly, with all the people in the gym, I figured I'd be limited by the 30-minute time limit during peak hours! But as a half hour came and went, the gym thinned out enough that there were always at least one or two treadmills available, and I decided that I could take the fastest shower ever and thus get to fish night only a half hour late. So, I never got off the treadmill easly, and I didn't get to wuss out of the workout after all.

I did my 5 miles, the first mile at 5 mph (12:00 pace) and the next 4 at 5.5 mph (10:54 pace) for a total of 55:36.

Now, I've always considered myself to be pretty decent at math, but I can't figure this one out: if 5 mph is 12:00/mile and 6 mph is 10:00/mile, why isn't 5.5 mph equal to 11:00/mile?? Now, I can do the math one way and say, well, 11 minutes per mile. 60 minutes divided by 11:00/mile is 5.4545 miles... which, of course, is not 5.5. And 60 minutes divided by 5.5 miles is 10.9090.../mile which, of course, is not 11 minutes.

But 5 mph is 10, and 6 is 12! Halfway between each is 5.5 and 11! I must admit that this has puzzled me for quite some time. Don't tell my bosses.

In my first week after the half marathon, I've already run 8 miles and will run 4 more tonight. For me, this is unheard of. I usually take the whole week off, but not this year. I am going to be a Half Ironman.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

It was way too freaking cold outside last night, so I ran on the treadmill. Gilruth is nicer (read: less crowded) around 7:00, as it turns out. I headed over after my first day of class and set the treadmill for 36 minutes at 5 miles per hour. That's 12:00 miles, equals 3 miles total. Yippee. Monday's swim was a good way to work out the last bits of post-half marathon soreness, but I wanted a nice, easy run to get my legs working again. I could've gone faster, but didn't.

About 10 minutes before I was done, my friend Michelle came in and got on a treadmill next to me. We chatted for the last bit of my run (I was at conversational pace, which was nice). I saw her on Sunday right around mile 12, cheering for all the runners -- and I was surprised to see her, because I'd assumed that she'd be running herself, knowing that she's a very active member of Bay Area Fit.

"Oh, I ran Disney this year," she said, "so I was just out to cheer." I asked her how the Disney race went, and whether she'd done the full or the half.

"Oh," she sort of smirked, "actually I did the Goofy."

I almost fell off the treadmill! She did the Goofy Challenge (that's a half marathon on Saturday, full marathon on Sunday), and even more -- she PRed the marathon! She beat her Houston time from last year by 5 minutes!

Michelle, you are officially awesome. And crazy. And awesome.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Here I am running on Sunday! Thanks to Nick for the photo. :)

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Houstonians are crazy. I don't claim to be a cold weather expert -- after all, the farthest north I've lived is Charlotte, and while the temperatures reached freezing fairly regularly, snow was more of a rarity. But come ON. Houston has gone weather crazy this week, and it's a little absurd.

Don't get me wrong -- it's damn cold outside, unusually cold for this area. Temperature hovering right above freezing, and a wind chill of around 20. But after watching the news at various points throughout the weekend and yesterday, you'd think the apocalypse was upon us. They were probably disappointed to wake up this morning and see that we didn't have ice on the roads.

That said, it'd a bit annoying that my employer can't bring my office (or the cafeteria, for that matter) to a comfortable temperature. At the moment I'm thinking about putting on gloves, and my toes are chilly. I wore a sweater and that was a good idea. I had to leave my coat on during lunch.

This morning I also wore a hat and scarf. I figure if not today, then when? My aunt made me a scarf for Christmas. Not Christmas 2006 -- Christmas 2005. Today I finally wore it for the first time. That made me laugh.

Monday, January 15, 2007

I haven't been worried about where I would do my swim training for the Half Ironman, because my apartment complex has a heated pool. That plan, however, went out the window when the much-talked-about cold front finally came through and the temperature dropped to 35 degrees. Did I mention that the heated pool is NOT inside?

This wouldn't have stopped me -- I actually did go by the pool to verify that the heat was on, and was validated as I watched the steam rising through the dark cold air -- except for two things. First, I didn't want anyone to glance out their window, see me swimming laps in 35 degree weather, and call the cops thinking I was a crazy person. Second, Jose already thought I was a crazy person for even considering it.

This left me with the options of either not swimming, or finding an indoor pool. My first thought was that I had to swim somewhere today. Skipping my first HI (as I'm going to start appreviating Half Ironman) workout sounded like a really bad way to start things off, and so I next investigated Williams Indoor Pool, where I have swum once before.

Their website says they're open for lap swim from 5:30 - 10 am and from 4-8 pm. I called around 11 to make sure they were open (since it was a government and school holiday) and got an answering machine. Jose and I headed off to Galveston for the day, and I called again at 4:00 hoping to catch someone. Answering machine again. Ate an early dinner along the cold, gray seawall. Called again. Answering machine again.

We got back to Clear Lake around 6:45, which would have been plenty of time if the pool was open, but at this point I was highly doubting it. It was at this point that I checked the heat in my apartment pool, but I made the mistake of taking Jose with me. He made me promise that I would NOT swim in the outdoor pool, telling me that it'd be hard to do a HI if I was recovering from pneumonia.

Ok, Plan B. I knew that Jen, Becca and Buzz used to occasionally swim at the Clear Lake Rec Center, so I called Jen to see if she knew their hours. She didn't, but the place was close enough that I decided to head over anyway. If it was closed, at least I could say that I gave it a shot.

I arrived and -- score! -- it was open. I peered through the foggy windows to see that there were a couple people in the pool, so I waltzed right in. Three old ladies were in the shallow end doing some kind of water exercises. They spotted me immediately.

"Can I help you?" said one. "I was hoping to swim some laps," I said. "I've never been here before -- are you still open?"

"Oh," the lady said, "well, lap swimming time ended at 7:00. We close at 8:00, and 7:00-8:00 is class time." My shoulders sagged, but before I could think anything else, the lady piped up again -- "But we're the only ones here, and we don't care if you swim laps. Go ahead! Just introduce yourself to Johnny down there." She pointed to a bored-looking teenager sitting in the shadows at the other end of the pool. The lifeguard.

Score!

I talked to Johnny, who said he didn't care if I swam laps as long as the old ladies didn't care, so I jumped right in and swam. Of course after all the confusion and uncertainty, I'd completely forgotten what my workout was supposed to be, save for the fact that it was 1000 yards total. So I set out to swim that distance at no particular pace, and by the time I was halfway through I had completely lost track of how many laps I'd done thus far. SIGH.

In the end, I'm pretty sure I did either 1000 or 1100 yards. I forgot my watch as well, but judging from the wall clock I swam for ~23 minutes. I was averaging 2 laps in just under 2:00, and took a few quick breathers, so it was probably a round 1000 yards total. I'm assuming that 2 laps (i.e. down and back twice) is 100 yards, although sub-2:00 for that distance seemed a little fast for me. (The rec center's website says the pool is "Olympic size" but I think they misunderstand the term, because it is most definitely not a 50 meter pool.)

Anyway, first swim workout -- DONE. Afterwards, I went and found the staff member on duty, who gave me a pool membership form. It's $95 for a yearly membership, or $5 per visit. Since a membership would pay for itself after only 19 visits, I'm just going to sign up for the whole year. No more worrying about the weather affecting my swims.

Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to fit in a bike workout in possible freezing rain on Wednesday...

Sunday, January 14, 2007

2:18:46!

It's official. That's a 10:35/mile average; I only ran 1 mile slower than 11:00. It's also a mere 13 seconds slower than last year. It's the slowest of my 4 half marathons, but I'm still pretty dang happy. My official splits were:

10k - 1:05:34 - 10:33/mile to that point
9 Mile - 1:34:48 - 10:32/mile to that point
Finish - 2:18:46 - 10:35/mile total average

I have found that in long races, even including my one marathon to an extent, I am nothing if not consistent. Today my splits were a bit wonky (I'd speed up, then force myself to slow down knowing I couldn't maintain it to the end, then unconsciously speed up again) but my overall average was very, very steady. From mile 1 to the end, the Garmin never read anything beyond 10:28 - 10:35 average pace.

The race really started last night, when Jose and I went over to Liz's new place for dinner with her, James, Chrissy, and Bing. We ate a lot of spaghetti, chatted, and played a couple games before it got "late" (by late I mean about 9:00) and I started thinking about bed. It was great to see all of them (including Liz and Bing, who live in Houston, so you'd think I'd see more often, but no). Chrissy, by the way, rocked her marathon debut today in 4:05. Congrats Chrissy!

The list of all the people I saw and cheered for, and the people who cheered for me, is long and I'm sure I'll forget someone. Yesterday while Jose and I were browsing a Rice Village music store (we took advantage of "being in town" to do some shopping), Barbara called with the news that she was staying at the same hotel. Perfect -- I had someone to walk over to GRB with this morning! When we got there, we immediately saw Jessica. I looked for June and Vic at Jessica's tip that they were "over by that column" but I never found them. After dropping off my bag, I didn't have anything to do until the race start so I just started wandering around. I saw Joe near the club tents and a coworker near the USA running club area. Dalton came up to me to say hi and chat about the help he's given me with the HARRA website run-o-matic. Finally I came across Ron and Buzz, and joined with them to walk to the start line.

The cannon sounded and we were off! Last year's gorgeous sunrise was not to be repeated -- the skies were gray, gray and more gray. The first half of the race was pretty uneventful. I saw some friends at various stages along the course as they passed me -- Keith, Cassie, Barbara, Dalton -- and enjoyed just being with the masses of runners. I had my Shuffle, but never even put the headphones in my ears. I always just end up listening to everyone else.

I was afraid that I had started out too fast, and tried to slow myself down at various points. By the turnaround, I was starting to get pretty tired, but noticing that the 15K and 10-mile markers were reversed got me fired up again (come ON, how hard is it to get that right? The number was painted in orange spray paint on the street! When I pointed this out to the girl who was saying "this mile 10 marker is short" she seemed oblivious to the huge "15K" painted at her feet). That got me fuming a little -- mile 10 was actually 9.3, and 15K was actually 10. Fortunately I had noticed this during mile 8 as I went the other direction, so I knew where to hit my watch.

As a side note, I have to say that I'm unimpressed with the Half this year -- whether it's Aramco or the organizing committee, I'm not sure. But both the t-shirt and the medal were the exact same as last year, just with "2007" instead of "2006." Oh, and the shirt was white, not gray. Is it too much to ask that they be a little more creative with the schwag? The finisher's shirt was nicer this year though, and fits better, so I'll give them that.

Somewhere past mile 8, I saw Nick standing on the other side of the road. "Wait there, I'll be right back!" I called, and I reached him about 5 minutes later after hitting the turnaround. I walked with him for a minute or so to chat and thank him for coming out to cheer for me -- he was all alone, which is pretty unusual for Nick. Thanks for supporting me Nick!

As I turned onto Allen Parkway at mile 11, I couldn't decide whether it was good or bad that you couldn't see downtown through all the fog and mist. I was tired enough that it was probably good -- if I'd seen the buildings, they would have looked too far away!

The eventual marathon winner passed me a bit before I hit 12 miles; he swooshed past on the other side of the road and made all of us half marathoners look like were we standing still. He had a huge lead on the next guy too. Amazing.

At mile 12 I picked up the pace because I knew that I was nearing the end, but really more because I knew that Jose would be just up ahead! I spotted him easily, since he was wearing my bright blue raincoat. I walked with him for a minute and after getting a good luck smooch, I was off for the finish.

I looked at my watch at this point and realized that if I really hoofed it, I might be able to beat last year's time of 2:18:33. I picked up the pace a bit more, but made sure not to go all out since I know from experience that the finish line -- which looks oh-so-close when you make the final turn onto Rusk -- is still more than a half mile away. By mile 13, I knew I'd be close (my watch said 2:18 and I couldn't see the seconds) so I took off as fast as I could for the last tenth of a mile. As I said, I missed last year's time by 13 seconds -- oh well, I'll live!

After the race I met Jose, walked back to the hotel, and took a much-needed shower. After a stop at Starbucks, we made it back out to the course around 25.5 miles to cheer for the 5:00+ marathoners. I saw Jill, Jon and Waverly (running her dad in), and finally the person I was really back out there for -- July! I mean, June! ;) She looked awesome, and I was so happy to see her and know that she was going to finish her first marathon. We waited until after 1:00, when the policemen came by to start reopening the course, hoping to see Vic. I had signed up to track him but never got a 30K update; I worried that something had happened to him. We had to leave because Jose was scheduled to go flying at 3 (which didn't happen due to the weather), and I didn't find out until later that Vic DID finish his first marathon. So, big congrats to both June and Vic.

Mile 1 - 10:47
Mile 2 - 10:39
Mile 3 - 10:15
Mile 4 - 10:41 (yelled hi to Erin at the mile marker; she was calling times)
Mile 5 - 10:17
Mile 6 - 10:29
Mile 7 - 10:41
Mile 8 - 10:14
Mile 9 - 10:41
Mile 10 - 11:11 (walked a bit with Nick)
Mile 11 - 10:46
Mile 12 - 10:48
Mile 13 - 10:16 (walked a bit with Jose)
Last 0.1 - 0:54

This year's performance once again begs the question -- what would happen if I started quality training in September! This year, just like last year, my training was pretty half-assed until I realized that I had to crack down or pull out of the race. If I can pull off a 2:19 with only 6 weeks of hard-core training, I know I could do much better with more consistent ramp-up. Yep, I'm an idiot sometimes. :)

There's no rest for me though -- next stop: Half Ironman! On April 1st I hope to be posting about how I am a Half Ironman. Training starts tomorrow (yes, tomorrow) with a swim workout.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

I know I'm "only" running the Half Marathon, but I totally still need carbs, right? :) To get a good start, I headed downtown last night to have dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse with this fine bunch:

I had told Jose that he wouldn't be the only non-runner, and I really thought he wouldn't! But some people couldn't make it at the last minute, so he had to sit through dinner listening to all of us talk about every aspect of running. I kid -- he was a good sport. He said after walking around the expo with me for little while, he formed a good image in his head of what a typical runner looks like. He said he could pick out the ones that were running and the ones that were just significant others. That made me laugh.

I know I'm "only" running the half marathon, but I totally had a race-anxiety dream last night. Considering the fact that I really don't feel worried about this race, I'll chalk it up to anxiety on behalf of others who are running the full! Anyway, I dreamed I was running a half marathon in Kansas City (random), except they started the race in groups of about 50 people. I was the slowest in my group, and after 5 minutes I was running alone. And then I reached the first checkpoint (the race had checkpoints of some kind) and couldn't figure out the clue that I needed to move on. So I started following someone else (the fast people from the 2nd wave had caught up to me), but then I ended up off course. And I went to mile 1, 2, 3, and then 10, 11, and 12. And I was all upset because I was almost to the finish line, but I had missed half of the course! The course wasn't well marked and I couldn't follow it!

Anyway.

I'll be heading downtown later to check into my hotel, have dinner with James and Chrissy and Liz, and hang out. James and Chrissy are in town for her to run the marathon; I'd forgotten they were coming until she emailed earlier this week. It's always fun to see college friends.

The ever-changing weather forecasts are converging and it looks like it's gonna be cold in the morning after all, with the biiiiig cold front arriving after all. I'm hoping for no rain, but doubting that we'll make it through the entire morning without a drop.

Good luck to all who are running tomorrow!

Friday, January 12, 2007

I bailed on my final 4-miler last night. I felt pretty guilty about it, but I had yet another rough afternoon at work and just wanted to go home. As a trade-off, I thought about doing a very easy 3 miles tonight, but I'm not going to have time before heading to the HRB pasta get-together.

The source of my non-running thoughts was the load checkout we did for STS-117 yesterday; I'll spare you the details but the main point is to check out the very very very large database of numbers and parameters as well as calibrate the simulator. The database check went swimmingly. But the calibration... Why does the simulator have to be calibrated? I don't know. Probably because it's old and crappy.

Anyway, nominally we need 3 runs to get the calibration correct. One to see how much it's off, one to correct it by adding "weight" to the simulator, and one to evaluate the underspeed and use that to divide the weight into dry weight, liquid oxygen weight, and liquid hydrogen weight. It becomes a big headache, however, to try to do such a calibration when something changes between run 2 and run 3. Something that no one can explain. And when you find an error in one of your tools. A tool that's supposed to be certified.

ARGH.

And yet, I love this job. I left work frustrated enough to skip running, and yet somehow satisfied. Can't really explain that.

I did a last-minute online search for a hotel room downtown for tomorrow night to make half marathon morning much easier. It's always nice to get an extra half hour of sleep, and nice to be able to go back and shower before climbing in the car to drive back to Clear Lake. I haven't done it for my 2 Houston Halfs, but I did it before the full. I didn't expect to find anything available, but I did! At the Marriott Courtyard. It's not quite as low as the marathon rate, but it's reasonable enough. Woo! Hopefully they will be ok with a late checkout, and I can stick around to cheer for all my marathon-finishing friends. :)

Thursday, January 11, 2007

If you are so inclined, you can once again track me as I run the Half Marathon on Sunday morning. If the setup is the same as in previous years, the cell phone update works pretty well, and you get my splits at -- I think -- the 5K, 10K, 9-mile, and finish.

I did a 5-miler last night pretty comfortably. I started out slow but sped up at the end.

5.07 miles - 55:17 - 10:54 average pace

Mile 1-2.9 - 11:26, 11:02, 9:53 (the Gilruth trail is 2.9 miles long)
Mile 3.9-5.07 - 10:54, 10:17, 1:42

The splits are confusing, I know. I had the Garmin set on auto-lap, but I also wanted to record my time for one full 2.9-mile lap on the trail. So I hit "lap" at 2.9 miles assuming that auto-lap would still catch the split at 3 miles. Not so. After that, it reset its mileage counter such that it took a split at 3.9 and 4.9.

Obviously I still have some more to learn about the Garmin. That dang thing is smarter than me! :)

In other news, I packed a lunch today for the first time in months. I am absurdly proud of this.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

I built up a lot of stress built up between 12:00 and 5:00 yesterday. It started with our first flight-specific STS-117 ascent sim, which had a couple rough spots for me. Then I realized that the 117 TCDT (a joint activity with KSC) is scheduled for the Friday that I'm currently supposed to be in Colorado skiing, so I may have to change my plane ticket to come back early. Then I found out that one of my managers was mad that we didn't change a procedure and set up an activity in advance of the 117 ILC (database check and simulator calibration) that we're doing on Thursday.

All the little things were bothering me, but they suddenly seemed minor when my coworker dropped the shocking and horrible news that she has cancer. Hodgkin's lymphoma. This is the girl who's sat beside me in sims for more than a year, the girl that's supposed to be sitting beside me in March when we launch STS-117. She starts chemo on Friday and next week if she can make it to our 2nd flight-specific ascent, she may not have any hair. She's still hoping to work the flight in March, and I hope hope hope that she can. Her chances are very good -- the doctors have said 80-90% survival -- and the cancer has not made it into her bone marrow yet.

They discovered it during a routine physical at the end of November; she had no symptoms other than a very high white blood cell count. If that's not incentive to get yearly physicals -- even if you feel fine -- then I don't know what is.

You should get a physical. Yes, you.

So, when I went running yesterday, I felt like I was possessed. I was running to blow off so much steam.

The schedule said 2x400 @ 2:08, 3x800 @ 4:20, and another 2x400 @ 2:08. I did an abbreviated warmup (half a mile) and skipped the cooldown entirely due to, ahem, issues relating to the two facts that I have fat thighs and I forgot my bodyglide. The problems started around the end of my 1st 800.

Overall - 4.75 miles (Garmin said 4.6?), 52:17
800 warmup - 5:40
400 run / 400 recovery - 2:08 / 3:11
400 / 400 - 2:06 / 3:13
800 / 400 - 4:13 / 4:23
800 / 400 - 4:03 / 4:14
800 / 400 - 4:04 / 4:26
400 / 400 - 1:56 / 3:25
400 / 400 - 2:04 / 3:05

I couldn't slow down. I tried, and couldn't. Oh well.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Coming back from vacation usually means coming back to a messy apartment, because I never really have time to clean up before I go. I can usually put up with a low-to-medium level of mess for quite a long time (the exception being dishes; I can't stand to leave dishes lying anywhere but the sink). But at some point, the mess goes from low-to-medium to I-can't-take-it and I get very antsy and I can't pay attention to anything else except trying to straighten up. Last night after watching another episode of Band of Brothers, Jose looked at me and said "one more?" I said "ok, but you must give me an hour to do some cleaning or my head is going to explode."

So he did. And I did. In that hour, I updated my budget (which, I must admit, is less of a budget and more of a money tracker, but at least it keeps me from going completely broke) to account for all my Christmas spending, took a load of laundry out of the dryer, put a new load in the washer, unloaded the dishwasher, loaded it again, filed some papers, threw a bunch of stuff away, and straightened up the coffee table. And after that, I felt SO much better.

I only saw about 10 minutes of the BCS game, but my dad called me at halftime to ask if I was watching the marching bands. "The halftime show is marching bands? Really? It's not some pop star?" That was pretty cool.

I tried out Motion Based last night, a website that takes the data from my Garmin Forerunner and plots it, maps it, etc. It listed my 8.3 mile run as 8.48 miles. Huh?? The FAQs say that the site doesn't take the Garmin distance; it takes the tracks and calculates mileage itself. But 8.3 is right, and it's self-calculated 8.48 is wrong! Then I tried SportTracks after remembering that Vic mentioned it. SportTracks also downloads the track as far as I can tell (because it gives you the ability to change it and/or correct it), and it calculated 8.3 miles. So what's the deal with MotionBased? Anyone else notice this problem?

My next thought, of course, was that the Garmin might provide too much data, if that's possible. It's addicting. I could look at the maps and graphs all day long...

Monday, January 08, 2007

Pretty lazy weekend, well, except for the running. Friday night was dinner at Ichibon with Jose, Nick, Heather, Melissa and Kelly. I got a drink in a ninja cup! Very exciting. On Saturday while flipping channels, we came across a "Band of Brothers" marathon on the History Channel. Five episodes on Saturday, the remaining five on Sunday. We watched all 5 on Saturday -- couldn't turn it off. I can't believe I never watched it before. It's really quite engrossing. Hard to imagine people reacting with the same sense of duty and patriotism today. Of course, it's also hard to imagine getting into a similar type of war today. We don't fight countries anymore, we fight groups.

Anyway. Saturday night also involved a trip to Target, where we were not the only ones spending a perfectly good weekend night buying cleaning supplies -- we saw Sue and her husband in the grocery area, and Melissa and Kelly at the checkout. Pretty funny.

One of my resolutions is to lose weight, which really means my resolution is to eat less and eat better. I came across a great link via Wil that shows what 200 calories looks like. Very enlightening. It's nice to see that there are some things you can eat a lot of without suffering dire consequences.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

On days like these, I wonder what it feels like to be fast. I know that fast runners work just as hard as I do, if not harder, and that they push themselves to their limits just like I push myself (sometimes) to mine. But the fact remains that while fast might not be easy, it's still fast. I wonder what it feels like to be Steve, or Edwin, or Sam. They can look at their schedules and think "hmm, 8 miles, that should take me about an hour." I look at my schedule and think "hmm, 8 miles, I'll be doing well if I can finish that in an hour and a half."

One of the big reasons I haven't decided to train for another marathon yet is that I remember fall 2004 all too well, and the feeling of doing nothing but work, eat, sleep, and run. And I wonder what it feels like to be fast. See, for a slow runner like me, I remember my long runs taking one hours...two hours...three hours...my longest run, a 22-miler, took 4+ hours.

I'm not complaining, really I'm not. It's just that I had grand plans to clean my apartment today. But after getting up, eating some lunch, waiting to let the food settle, running, cooling down, showering, and eating again, it's almost 6:00 and my apartment is just as messy as it was when I got up this morning. Being slow sucks for getting anything else done. :)

8.3 miles
1:29:50
10:49 min/mile (even with 11/1s ?!)

I ran my 8-miler on the Seabrook trails this afternoon, and passed dozens of people also out enjoying the beautiful weather. I was amazed by the 10:49 pace, enough that I checked my whole route via the Gmap pedometer. That turned up 8.2 miles, with me not following the route super-closely just to save some clicking.

The Garmin did well (yes I got one, see post below) and I liked having it. I haven't read the owners manual yet, so I just left it on the default screen that showed total time, instantaneous pace, and total distance. The instantaneous pace calculation seemed a little flaky -- it jumped around quite a bit, especially under tree cover. But overall I'm impressed. I love gadgets!

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Ok. I admit it. I am weak! I couldn't resist its siren call:

Testing it out momentarily...

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Got my confirmation card yesterday and will be picking up my packet on Saturday. Jose was just asking what my race goal is, so I guess I'll share with everyone. First of all: finish. (My main goal in any race is always to finish.) If I finish under 2:25, I'll be happy. If I finish under 2:20, I'll be very happy. I believe 2:25 is doable; 2:20 will be harder, but not impossible if things go well (good weather, etc).

This will be my 4th half marathon and third in Houston. My times thus far have been 2:15:01 (Houston 2004), 2:16:35 (Austion 2004), and 2:18:33 (Houston 2006). As you can see, I've slacked off more and more with each race, and my times show it. ;) But I still love to get out there and run on race day.

This will also be my 4th year of running through downtown on the Sunday before MLK day. In 2005, of course, I did the full 26.2 miles. I sort of like this little tradition, and hope to continue.

I did 3 miles today in 32:30. Tomorrow I'll do 8. Next Sunday is the big day!

Friday, January 05, 2007

The upside of taking an unintentional four-day break from running is that I felt pretty good last night when I got back out there. Steeeve suggested 4 miles -- 1 warmup, 2 at 11:00 pace, and 1 cooldown. I tried to comply, but ended up going faster because I felt pretty darn good. I did the 4 miles in 42:56.

Mile 1 - 10:55
Mile 2 - 10:43 (into the wind, some light drizzle)
Mile 3 - 10:07 (wind at my back, drizzle stopped)
Mile 4 - 11:11

Even in the 3rd mile, I felt fairly comfortable. Last night, 10:10 pace is something I felt like I could have maintained over at least a 5K distance, assuming I did a good warmup.

I updated my sidebar with a list of upcoming races that I'm planning to do, and only then did I realize how packed my spring is:

January 14 - Houston Half Marathon
February 10 - Surfside Half Marathon
March 4 - Little Rock Half Marathon (BIG maybe)
March 17 - Seabrook Lucky Trails Half Marathon
April 1 - Lone Star Half Ironman Triathlon
April 14 - Charlotte (NC) Racefest Half Marathon with my sister

Buzz asked if I wanted to do Austin; I can't because I'll be skiing. Gavin has thrown out the idea of doing Little Rock on March 4 (his sister lives there and he says the course is really nice), but we don't have solid plans yet.

I won't be racing all of these all-out; some are just a way of me getting in a fun training run, since I need to maintain/improve my 13.1-mile level of fitness until the Half Ironman comes and goes. And obviously I won't be focusing entirely on running after January 14. My priorities are 1) finishing Houston in style, 2) finishing the Half Ironman, period (under their 8.5 hour time limit), and 3) having fun in Charlotte running with my sister as she does her first half marathon.

My presense at Seabrook is up in the air, since STS-117 is currently scheduled to launch that day, but I'm hoping to do it.

And then I think "heck, if I actually do all of those races, I'll have done 5 half marathons in 4 months...might as well keep going and do Love the Half!" (Although I'm not quite sure what the advantage to signing up for that program is; seems like you're paying a fairly high registration fee just to get a finisher's prize and your name on a website.)

We'll see. That schedule is/will/would be far more ambitious than anything I've done before, and yet it's happened almost by accident. We'll just see...

Thursday, January 04, 2007

"Ask about your neighbors, then buy the house." (Jewish proverb)

I can't believe it -- when I was listing all my resolutions yesterday, I forgot to mention the "big one" that I've been pondering for a while now but haven't made public:

This year, I hope to buy a house. !!!

The thought of buying a house is scary, but with the changes in my life that happened in 2006 -- notably the new job -- the thought of buying a house is starting to sound a lot more appealing. This summer will mark 5 years of full-time employment in Houston for me. That's 5 years of full-time residency. (I always feel the need to distinguish between the time I was co-oping and the point at which I moved here "for real.")

When I moved to Houston "for real" in July 2002, I didn't know how long I would be here. I had illusions of going back to grad school to get a Ph.D., but I realized quickly that more education in engineering is not what I want. After a couple years, I began to realize that my current job wasn't quite what I wanted long-term, and I started looking around and even did one job interview, and thought I might leave Houston again. For four years, I never seriously considered buying a house because, in the back of my mind, I thought living in Houston might be temporary.

But now I have a new job, one that I am excited about, and one that I plan on sticking with at least until the space shuttle stops flying in order to accomplish the goals of training for and working flights at my new positions. That shouldn't be any earlier than 2010. And so I am finally faced with the reality of staying in Houston for at least four more years.

I say "faced with the reality" as if it is a bad thing, but it's not. I have grown to like Houston in my own weird way. I still think it's a rather ugly city, and of course the climate could be better, and it could be closer to mountains and hiking....and on and on. But I've lived here long enough now that it feels like home, and it feels like my city. I'm finally comfortable with the idea of owning property and making my presence here more permanent.

So: this year I hope to buy a house. My lease is up at the end of August, so I plan to start looking late in the spring.

At this rate, 2007 might be even bigger than 2006.

-----

It's funny how quickly I can fall off the running wagon. I haven't run since my 14-miler last Saturday and am feeling pretty guilty about it. The first two days, I didn't run because I was busy enjoying Jose's time in Charlotte and told myself I'd catch up. The last two days, I didn't run because I let life get in the way. I'm disappointed in myself to have slacked off so close to the big day -- Half Marathon on January 14.

Tonight I am taking photos at the 2 Interliga soccer games at Roberston Stadium, but I am leaving work early to make sure I get 4 miles in. Thanks to Steeeve for helping me re-grip.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

I walked through my front door last night sad that vacation was over but happy to be back in the pink apartment next to my little bayou. It was chilly inside, but I expected that because I turned off the heat when I left. What I didn't expect was to find the door to my balcony about 3 inches ajar. My heart immediately started pounding, and Jose checked every closet while I took a cursory glance around and checked that everything was indeed still in its proper place. All major electronics accounted for, jewelry (though I had my most expensive items with me) as expected in the box, nothing obviously amiss.

Did the apartment people come in while I was gone? They mentioned something about an annual inspection, but I was pretty sure that was in early December and I was also pretty sure I'd gotten a letter saying they were going to do it on a certain day when I was definitely still in town. Suddenly Jose remembered that the last thing we did before he took me to the airport on December 22 was watch the space shuttle fly over. I was very excited about that, and do remember opening the door to the balcony before we changed our minds and went downstairs and farther outside. As soon as we saw the shuttle fly over, we had to run back inside and grab my stuff to immediately head to the airport.

So yes, the logical explanation is that I opened the door, never fully closed it, didn't realize it was still open because it was only cracked by a few inches, and left town. So yes, my apartment was open and accessible to anyone who figured out how to get on the balcony for a WEEK AND A HALF.

I'm an idiot. I'm also very very VERY relieved that my idiocy either went unnoticed or un-taken-advantage-of.

So, I think I owe my future self (the only one who might ever go back and re-read this entry) and current readers a 2006 recap. It was a very good year for me, perhaps the best ever. I was successful with about half of my 2006 resolutions, including continuing classes towards a graphic design degree at UHCL, shooting a professional sporting event (Major League Soccer), doing a triathlon (did 3 of them), publishing my STS-107 footprint paper (did that at the AIAA conference in August), and certifying as an ARD flight controller!

The two biggest things of the year, however, were unexpected. I guess that's how life is; you don't often predict the things that will cause the biggest changes...

In August, I got a new job! I was content in my old job, but not happy. I knew that although I got to work on some cool and worthwhile projects, doing analysis all the time would not make me happy in the long run. Doing ARD part-time confirmed what I always suspected was true: I want a job that is more interactive, that is more real-time, that is more tangible. I want to work with people, and talk to people. Being a full-time flight controller will suit me better, and I am very excited to get started in Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures. The training will take a while, and I have a lot of reading to do, but this is where I want to be right now, and this is the path that I want to follow in the future.

In January, I started dating Jose. He joined a group of friends to cheer for me at the half marathon last year, and our first official date was the following weekend. It's been almost one year, which is pretty cool. I'm lucky to have found him, and I am very happy. 'Nuff said.

My 2006 recap of running and more looks something like this:

+ 412 miles run (perhaps my most-ever in a year, I'm not sure)
+ 374 miles biked (definitely my most-ever in a year)
+ 9.5 miles swum
+ 23 events done (including 3 triathlons, 1 duathlon, and 1 adventure race)

And finally, my resolutions for 2007:

+ Lose 10 pounds. Again.*
+ Train for and complete the Lone Star Half Ironman on April 1.
+ Play my flute, for the first time since leaving Stanford.
+ Work a launch as ARD Support Officer. (I'm scheduled for 3, so this shouldn't be a problem!)
+ Certify as RPS (Rendezvous Procedures Specialist).
+ Visit a new continent. (Asia, Africa, Australia, or Antarctica?)

* I hate this resolution. However, I am 20 pounds heavier than I was in September 2004 when we came back from Peru and that is NOT. COOL.

Happy New Year, three days late! :)

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Hello 2007. Sorry I've been a blog slacker for your first 36 hours.

I've got a post coming about year-end wrap-up and 2007 goals (I don't like to call them resolutions). I'm really just posting at the moment to say that:

+ I've been a bad runner and haven't run since the 14-miler on Saturday and won't run today. But I will run tomorrow, I promise.

+ Jose and I have been having a lovely time in Charlotte. We went down to the park last night to find the Andromeda galaxy with Dad and his image stabilized binoculars. Dad and Jose get along great, as I knew they would.

+ We head back to Houston this evening, and tomorrow I'll be back at work. Ah, I hate the end of vacation.

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year!