Motive Half-Marathon Course

Needless to say, with all of the wedding activities, UT Longhorn games, and craziness at work, my training has been suffering. I did manage to run 18 miles the week of the wedding, but have only run 8 miles in the past 2 weeks prior to Saturday. My Team in Training group has a regularly scheduled long run on Saturday mornings, but I have missed the last three. The last long run I did was 8.2 miles so when I found out this week's run was the whole Motive Half-Marathon course of 13.1 miles, I was more than a little initimidated and anxious. Not only that, we had a "reorganization" at work on Friday so I went to happy hour Friday evening with my new boss and had 6 beers since he was buying. I don't think that's quite the kind of carb loading I should be doing, but the run went surprisingly well. I did the whole run it about 2:24 minutes which included a 7 minute bathroom stop and a couple of water/gatorade stops.

My primary goal was to finish the distance with a secondary goal of running the entire distance without any walking. I accomplished both! It's is really amazing what your body can do if you put your mind to it. Of course, I also remembered why I was out running on Saturday morning, to raise money and awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. I recently received an email saying that our honored hero is now an honored angel, a 6 year-old boy lost his battle with cancer. I feel very fortunate that I am physically able to run and run simply because I can.

This was the run that I really needed to complete to reinvigorate my training, and to give me back my self-confidence. I have already completed the course, so the Motive Half-Marathon in 3 weeks should be fairly easy. My goal now is to establish a Personal Record. Did I mention that the weather was a perfect 58 degrees? There is one mean hill on the course that increases over 250 ft over a distance of one mile. See my heart rate graph below; the red area is the altitude:


Heart Rate, Speed, Distance, and Altitude Graph

As you can see, I need to calibrate my Polar s625x as it only shows 12.8 miles instead of 13.1.

Married? Yea, Married

Well, Richard and Lauren finally got married in Houston after 16 months of engagement and one postponement. They were originally supposed to get married on the weekend of September 24th, but it was postponed due to Hurricane Rita; they were married on Friday, October 14th instead. As I said in my Best Man speech, things happen for a reason, and I think this makes for a funny story and makes their wedding more unique, memorable, and meaningful. You know they say it is lucky if it rains on your wedding day, so Richard and Lauren should have a tremendous amount of luck since there was a hurricane on their original wedding day.

The wedding was beautiful and went off without a hitch which was a bit surprising since Lauren had to undo the original wedding in 2 days and replan it a few weeks later in less than 5. Also, since it was a Friday night wedding (due to church availability), most of the wedding party were unable to attend rehearsal on Thursday night as most folks don't live in H-town.

Congratulations and Good Luck, Richard and Lauren!


Congratulations! Richard and Lauren are finally married.


My nephew, Kaleb, at Richard and Lauren's wedding. He looks sharp in his little tux.


Matt, myself, Richard, and Steve celebrating at the wedding reception.

Victory is Sweet

My training really suffered this week, and week-to-date I have only run 4 miles; however, I do plan on going to Town Lake later this afternoon so I should finish the week with a meager 8 miles.

Part of my distraction was that I went to the 100th anniversary of the Red River Rivalry this weekend in Dallas. Since the tickets were going for over $300/each on eBay, we decided that we would just get scalped tickets on game day for less. Due to the sold out crowd there were not that many tickets to be had, and the prices were going up quickly as game time approached, so we ended up getting desperate and paying $280/each for the OU side in the end zone. Ouch! So much for our brilliant plan, we should have bought the tickets on eBay.


The OU fans weren't happy that we were sitting among them...especially since we destroyed them :)
By the way, those aren't index fingers.

Actually, the OU fans weren't that bad except for one loud mouth that my brother offered "a warm glass of shut the f*** up." I have never been to a Texas vs OU rivalry game so it was sweet that we won with the largest margin of victory in 64 years!! We let the scoreboard do the talking.


Final score Horns 45, Sooners 12!!


Vince Young after the game.


Richard, Tyler, Sara, and myself after the game (with Big Tex in the background).

After the game we had dinner with my sister, her fiance, and my nephew, Kaleb. Kaleb is so cute. He wanted to go home to Austin with us, and when we went to the car to leave, he got in his normal seat in the back of my car, put his seat belt on, and wouldn't get out (until his mother started counting...you know the ominous count..I think she only got to 2 and he was quickly out of the car).

It was great fun and I look forward to going again next year.

IBM Uptown Classic 10k

This morning I ran the IBM Uptown Classic 10k with my friend Sara.


Starting line of IBM Uptown Classic 10k

Although the temperature was only around 80 degrees, it seemed really hot and I started struggling around mile 3. I guess it was the humidity. Around mile 5 I started to get my second wind and ended finishing in 1 hour and 2 minutes, a 10:07/mile pace. Although that's not fast, it is a personal best for me; I think the last 10k I ran in April I averaged around 11:00/mile.


Crossing the Finish Line.

Afterwards, I had free Mangia pizza and watched the John Wayne Gacy clown.


Freak John Wayne Gacy Clown.

I had 2 beers and 2 glasses of wine on Saturday night and considered that my carbohydrate loading; however, I don't think that works so well. After my 8.2 mile run two weeks ago, I gained significant confidence but had a wake up call this morning. If the half-marathon were today, I would be walking at mile 7; I really struggled to finish this race.

Long Run

I met with my fellow Team in Training members in the parking lot of Austin High School at 6:30 on Saturday morning. We started by listening to a heartfelt story of a fellow runner who had lost a friend to Hodgkin's disease. It really puts running in perspective and makes me realize that I am running because I can, and, for that, I am very thankful. One of the TnT sayings is that running long distances and raising money is difficult, but try chemotherapy.

The planned run was 7 miles down Lake Austin Blvd and in the beautiful neighborhood in and around Scenic Blvd on the North Side of Lake Austin. The course was great because it had a significant number of hills which was great training. Plus, the view of the lake and the amazing houses kept me "sightseeing" instead of thinking of the run. This week's run was going to prove to be a confidence builder or confidence buster because the furthest I have run recently is 6 miles, and that was several weeks ago.

The group that I was running with got lost; it was a case of the blind leading the blind. Luckily, I had my Polar watch that keeps distance so I could still tell how far we had been running even though we strayed from the original course. My goal was just to complete the original 7 miles wherever that happened to be and walk back to Austin high, if necessary. However, once I hit the 7 mile mark, I couldn't stop. Everything felt great and I was in the groove experiencing runner's high. The final run was 8.2 miles in 1 hour and 26 minutes or a 10:30/mile pace including 2 water stops. What a great run!!

Unfortunately, I was only able to run 8 miles earlier in the week, so my weekly mileage was 16.2 miles. I was shooting for 20 miles. Next week's long run is supposed to be 8 miles, but I won't be able to run with the group because I'll be in Houston for my brother's wedding. I am planning to get a couple of runs in at Memorial Park.

Running for a Reason

I recently joined the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training to help prepare for the Motive Bison Stampede half marathon in November while raising money for a good cause. This organization provides a coach, training program, and most importantly an environment of individuals committed in finding a cure for cancer. My goal is to raise $1,000 for the event and will match any donation up to $250 made on my donation website. Additionally, I donated $50 just to kick it off. By the way, all donations are tax-deductible.

I am sure that at some point in our lives cancer in one way or another has affected all of us. We all know someone who has been affected. Modern research has made huge strides in finding a cure; however, there is much work still to be done. The Society has invested more than $424 million in research, and I would like to do my small part in increasing this amount. Won't you join me?

Richard's Bachelor Party

We went to New Orleans for Richard's bachelor party last Thursday and returned Sunday less than 12 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit. We had a really great time doing the requisite bachelor party activities including gambling at Harrah's, boobs on Bourbon Street, and plenty of Hurricanes and Hand Grenades.


Drinking hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's on Friday night. We were oblivious that Hurricane Katrina was on her way to New Orleans.

On Saturday night when it was apparent that Hurricane Katrina was heading towards New Orleans, it got pretty scary because United and Delta canceled all of their flights out of the city. We were scheduled on a 12 noon flight out on Southwest airlines on Sunday, but were worried that Southwest would cancel its flights as well based on the speed of the hurricane heading towards NOLA. We decided that we would just rent a car and road trip it home; we thought that would actually be fun. I started calling all of the rental car agencies around 10pm, and all of them were sold out.

I then started calling other airlines to see if we could book an earlier flight just in case our flight was canceled. Every airline was sold out to every city serviced by the airlines. By this point, I wanted a contingency plan, and just wanted a flight to Houston but would go to Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland... anywhere but New Orleans. Additionally, the city was about to announce a mandatory evacuation and initiated "contra flow" in which the major highways out of the city were changed to one direction. The folks at our hotel said during the last hurricane, the roads were so congested with people evacuating the city, that it took 6 hours to get from downtown to the airport.

We decided to leave for the airport at 1:30 am to provide for any delays and to go stand by on all the earlier flights to ensure we made it out. Luckily, there was no traffic at that time of the morning, and it only took us 30 minutes to get to the airport. While in the taxi, we heard someone on the dispatch looking for a cab to drive some folks to Houston for $700. In the back of my mind, this was my contingency plan if we didn't make a flight.


Sleeping in the Louis Armstrong airport in New Orleans.


Once at the airport, I withdrew $1,000 cash from the ATM machine in order to hire a taxi or bribe someone to pick us up while hitchhiking on the highway if we didn't make a flight. Luckily, we finally got on a 9:30 am flight to Houston. As soon as we took off, the pilot came on and said the storm was 37 miles south of New Orleans and said to look out the left side of the aircraft to view the storm. It was an amazing sight; I wish I would have taken a picture. I am very thankful that we got out when we did and have tremendous sympathy for those who did not and for those who lost everything, including their lives. I have been glued to CNN, Fox, and MSNBC all week long. The devestation and chaos is unbelievable.

Running Update

This week was a pretty good week for running and exercise. I woke up at 6:15 am on Monday morning and ran 4 miles before work. After work, I went to the gym and did some circuit training with the weights. I am a member of 24 Hour Fitness, and they have a circuit training area that includes machines for abs, seated squat, seated leg curls for hamstrings, leg press for quadriceps, bench press, shoulder press, tricep press, seated row, and bicep curl. I haven't worked out with the weights in a while so my muscles were sore all week long.

On Tuesday, I ran 4 miles and then offset all the exercise with a wine tasting and dinner at Fleming's. Wednesday I hosted dinner and a movie night with some friends and grilled Prime filets that I got from Central Market. I have never bought Prime beef from the grocery store before, but it was amazing. The cut of meat really makes a huge difference!! We watched Love Actually on DVD which the girls suggested (I wanted to see Wedding Crashers), and it was pretty good. I had very low expectations for this chick flick.

Friday I ran 4 miles on the dreadmill and Saturday I did 8 miles at Town Lake although I only ran 6 of them. After that I got some new shoes from a friend that works at RunTex. I changed from the Asics GT-2100 to the Brooks Trance 5. I wanted the Asics Kayano, but they didn't have my size. Today I went to the gym to work out and then ran 3 miles on the indoor track (my friend said that if I run on the treadmill or indoor track and don't like the shoes, I could bring them back for a full refund) to take the new shoes for a test drive. The shoes don't feel nearly as "cushiony" as the Asics and seemed really long and flat. I didn't have any discomfort, but I like the Asics much better. I think it's just that I am used to the Asics, so I think I am going to find some Kayonos in my size or just go back to a new pair of GT-2100s.

So, that gives me 21 miles for the week. I haven't broken the 20 mile mark since before the Freescale half-marathon. Additionally, I have added incentive. I am weighing in at around 204 lbs, and haven't been sub-200 lbs in probably a decade. So, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel to reach this milestone. For the past 2 weeks I have been on the Abs Diet which a friend recommended and lent me the book. It is really a common sense approach to eating healthy, eating 6 small meals a day, and exercising. The theory is to increase metabolism through eating the right foods and building muscle mass.

I haven't really lost any weight in the past two weeks since I have been on it, but I feel great. I haven't eaten any fast food in 2 weeks (with the exception of a late night Whataburger last weekend after Richard and Lauren's wedding shower party at 3:30 in the morning). Also, I usually have 2 diet colas at work a day. For the past 2 weeks, I have only had 1 choosing to drink only water, green tea, or milk. I went to Whole Foods 2 weeks ago and loaded up on healthy foods and snacks, it was expensive at $143. But, since I have been eating in and the groceries have lasted over 2 weeks, it is probably cheaper than my normal diet of eating out every night.

Best Running Cities in the US

See the article on MSN.com. Austin was ranked number 11, Dallas 15, and Houston 21. It's nice to see that the race to run in Dallas is the White Rock marathon. I am looking forward to it. I ran 20 miles last week despite a major drinking binge over the 4th of July weekend. We did the Texas Hill Country wine trail and visited Lost Creek vineyard near Marble Falls and Flat Creek vineyard just outside of Lago Vista near Austin. Anyways, I am not used to drinking wine and it was flowing like beer. Needless to say, it caught up to me fast...really fast.

Lance Armstrong Foundation Night at Dell Diamond

My soon-to-be sister-in-law works for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and invited us to the LAF night at the Dell Diamond last Saturday night to watch the Round Rock Express play. We had a really good time. My nephew, Kaleb, is a really great kid.



Kaleb is a Lance fan.


Kaleb eating cotton candy at the Round Rock Express game.


Kaleb and Uncle Dave.

Dallas White Rock Marathon

Well, it's been almost two months since I have blogged. You can definitely tell it's summer time because it seems like the frequency of posts has decreased on most of the blogs that I read.

My friend, Patrick, sent me an email the other day saying that he is going to run the White Rock Marathon in Dallas on December 11. I asked if they had a half marathon (and they do), but said to myself, "screw the half, I'm doing the marathon." There is a guy that sits one row over at work who recently ran the San Diego marathon. If he can do it, so can I. It took him 6 hours to complete it, and I figure I can do much better than that. He doesn't look like he is that great of shape...but either do I.

I have been running about 3 miles, 3 times a week just to offset all of the heavy beer drinking this summer. But, I will increase my training beginning next week. If all goes well, I will try to get back to Town Lake this Saturday and do a long run of 5 miles. With the heat in Austin, I have been having difficulty running 4 miles which used to be my bare minimum for a run. I have been using the Pose Method and have increased my running pace to sub 10 minute miles which is quite a bit faster than the 11:30 to 12:00 minutes I was running before.

John-Michael

My friend and former roommate John-Michael was on the news this morning; he is the President of the Austin History Center.

2005 Texas Round-up

My brother, sister, cousin, and I ran the 2005 Texas Round-up 10k on Saturday morning in memory of our mother (and aunt). Thankfully, a cool front blew in Friday night and the temperature changed from the high 80's on Friday to the low 50's and windy on Saturday morning. I told my brother and cousin that this was perfect running temperature, and they didn't need long sleeves. However, as we stood waiting at the starting line, they were cursing me because it was cold, and the race was delayed 10 minutes. We happened to be standing right next to the starter's platform where Governor Rick Perry introduced Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, along with Clay Walker who sang the National Anthem. See the the video from News 8 Austin.


Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson, Duchess of York; Clay Walker; Rick Perry; and the Pilgrim's Pride Chicken


Starting Line of Texas Roundup '05 


Before the race. 

As the race got underway, it began raining lightly which lasted, intermittently, throughout the run. I went out really slowly and focused on running with good Pose form; however, I still managed a PR at 1:08 or a 11 minute/mile pace. I have always been a slow runner, but I really feel that I had a lot left over after the race and should have pushed harder towards the end. It is a PR mainly because I have never run a 10k race before. I have run the Schlotzsky's Bun Run 5k back in 1994, the 5 mile Turkey Trot last November, the Freescale Half Marathon in February, and now the Texas Round-up 10k.

Although my sister works out on a regular basis, she only trained for a couple of weeks going into this race, and she ran it in 1:04, slightly under a 10.5 minute/mile. That is awesome!! Similarly, my brother ran it in 1:11, and he didn't train at all. My cousin didn't train either and decided to run it the day before when he found out we had an extra registration packet since Lauren got called out of town for business with the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Everyone did a tremendous job (although I think the non-trainers are walking funny today); mom would be very proud!!


After the race...we finished!! 


In memory of mom...we miss you!! 

Austin has a Sherlock's

When I lived in Houston for a year in 2001-2002, I often frequented Sherlock's Pub on West Gray. On Thursday, they opened one in Austin, so I went with my brother, his fiancee, and some other friends to check it out on Friday night. It's a pretty big place with pool tables, darts, food, and, of course, beer. What I like most about it is the location; it's in Northwest Austin on the corner of Burnet Rd. and 183. It is a good alternative to going downtown for a beer.

Here is a video that my cousin referred me to. When my brother and I watched it, we were in tears laughing. I kind of feel guilty for laughing, but I guess that's what she gets for cheating. Listen and watch carefully when someone says, "Stop."

On the exercise front, I did go down to Town Lake on Saturday and ran 4 miles; although, I could feel the remnants of the cold on the respiratory system. I had to walk for a couple of minutes after mile 3. The 10k this weekend should be interesting. I plan to run 4 miles tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday to get ready for the race.

On the Road Again

Actually, on the "dreadmill" again. I haven't blogged since April 3rd, two days after the last time since I have run...until today. I was sick with a terrible cold and upper respiratory infection for two weeks. I felt well enough to run last weekend and intended to do so, but it was just so easy to give in to excuses. I guess I was a victim of Newton's first law, objects at rest stay at rest, and objects in motion will stay in motion.

It amazes me how hard it is to start running again after you have lost the momentum. I brought my running gear with me to work every day this week and placed it under my desk with the intention of running at lunch, but every day I found an excuse to delay my run until after work. After work, I quickly found an excuse to run first thing in the morning and would set my alarm for 5:30 am. At 5:30 am the next morning, I told myself I would run at lunch as I pushed the snooze button...repeatedly. And the vicious (downward) spiral continued.

One day I was watching PBS television during one of their support drives, and there was a gentleman speaking named Dr. Wayne Dyer. Dr. Dyer, affectionately called the "father of motivation" by his fans, is one of the most widely known and respected people in the field of self-empowerment (from his website). One of the things that I remember from his PBS special is that you must "contemplate and surround yourself with the conditions that you want to produce in your life." When I went to my friend's wedding on April 2nd, I put on my regular watch and have had it on ever since. But for some reason, today I put back on my Polar heart rate monitor watch, and I just *felt* like a runner. Oddly enough, this subtle suggestion was enough to motivate me to run today, the first time in 20 days. I contemplated and surrounded myself with running!

During my running hiatus I ordered The Pose Method of Running and the accompanying DVD based on one of Patrick's posts. I figured I would try this new technique on my first day back running, especially since I was running on the treadmill. Basically, the technique is to run on the balls of your feet and to visualize pulling straight up from the ankles. It was sort of difficult concentrating on form at first, but got easier as the run went along. There were no epiphanies for me; however, I did realize that I was definitely running with a heel strike before. This method is supposed to enhance endurance, raise speed, reduce recovery time, increase flexibility, and reduce injuries. These are all things that I could benefit from, so I'll try and stick with it for awhile.

As soon as I finished running, I could feel my calf muscles and expect to be sore; I can definitely tell that I was running with different form. I only ran 3 miles which wasn't difficult, but the rate of perceived exertion felt like about 4 miles. How quickly we erase the endurance gains!! I am looking forward to the 10k next weekend.

Sick and Tired

Last Saturday night I went to a friend's birthday dinner at Moonshine Patio Bar and Grill.


Susan's Birthday Dinner at Moonshine. 

I had the Texas Flat Iron steak with a bleu cheese butter sauce that was delicious. I want to go back and try the rainbow trout which was subsequently recommended by a coworker that I ran into while leaving the restaurant. The place was nice, not too pretentious, and off the beaten path compared to other downtown restaurants. The $2 valet parking made it really easy to get in and get out. Definitely not a F&L (first and last) dining experience.

On Easter Sunday, I went to my grandmother's house and celebrated the resurrection of Christ by proceeding to gorge myself on barbecued chicken, sausage, ham, and too many sides and desserts to mention. I didn't go to Easter Mass, but I did watch Joel Osteen's service at Minute Maid Park and Tivo'd it. Does that count? I was raised Catholic, but recently have been trying to figure out what religion/church to attend. I am definitely a Christian, but don't necessarily believe in all of the teachings of the Catholic church; some of the canons seem contrived and man-made versus divine. But I guess that's what faith is all about.

Yesterday I woke up with congestion and a stuffy nose. I lied around the house resting and watching CNN for the latest on the Pope's health conditions. At 2:00 I went to a friend's beautiful Catholic wedding but began feeling achy and feverish so I didn't attend the reception. What the heck? I was sick just two weeks ago!! Needless to say, I have only run 14 miles over the past two weeks.

In Memoriam

I only ran 8 miles last week because I started getting sick on Friday and spent the rest of the weekend in bed. Luckily, I had the NCAA basketball tourney to keep me occupied. Normally, I am not a huge sports fan, but this is more of a gambling experience than a sporting event since I have money riding on some brackets at work. Unfortunately, I am in 106th place out of 118.

I babysat Kaleb, my nephew, for two days on Wednesday and Thursday while my sister was doing some job interviewing in Big D. He had a cough, and I think I caught an upper respiratory bug from him. I read an article about sick kids and daycares, and one study found that if a virus is introduced into the daycare in the morning, 80% of the children and 50% of the parents will be infected by day's end. No wonder it seems like children are perpetually sick. When I picked Kaleb up from daycare, we were counting tractors and other various construction equipment (which there is no shortage of due to all of the road construction) on the way home. I spotted an unusually clean, white dump truck and asked him if he saw it. He commented that it was a very clean dump truck, and I agreed. He then said, "I like nasty dump trucks." I don't know why I thought that was so funny, but I laughed. Kids say the darndest things.

I previously posted that I was going to run the Texas Roundup 10k because I thought it was for a good cause, "a statewide effort to encourage Texans of all fitness levels to incorporate daily physical activity and healthy choices into their lives." Now, I have even more reason to run the 10k and have recruited the family. I have dedicated this run to my mother. My brother, his fiancee, my sister, her fiance, and I are running the 10k in her memory; she was tragically killed in a car accident 10 years and 1 day from the date of the run, April 30th. We miss her dearly, and I find it hard to believe she has physically been gone from us for almost a decade. However, she will forever be in our hearts, minds, and prayers.

Varekai

I ran 14 miles last week which was better than the past few weeks, but short of my goal of 18. I happened to be searching the internet on Friday night and came across the Go for the Gold 10k. Since my planned long run on Saturday was 6 miles, I figured I'd run this 10k for the people watching and race encouragement instead. But as soon as I turned it into a race, I had anxiety and couldn't sleep. Since I hadn't registered, all of the logistics kept creeping into my mind. What time do I have to wake up to register before the race? Where is the race? Where do I park?

Needless to say, by the time I got to sleep it was at least 3:30 am, and I needed to leave at about 6:30 am. So, I blew it off. I did, however, run my 6 miles at Town Lake at 9:00am. I need to figure out a way to relieve the pre-race anxiety. Hopefully, that will come with experience and familiarity to racing (or drugs...drugs are good).

Saturday night I went with a group of friends to Eastside Cafe. I had never been there before so it was good to see friends, meet new people, and have a new dining experience. "The Eastside Café sits on an acre of land surrounded by dozens of pecan trees. One third of the land is home to a gorgeous organic garden. For 15 years vegetables, herbs and flowers have been organically grown and harvested for use in the Eastside Café kitchen." It was delicious.

Afterwards, we went to Cirque du Soleil's Varekai at the old Austin Bergstrom airport. I was a little apprehensive at first because it was in a tent put up in a parking lot. I wasn't necessarily bothered about being in a tent, I just had visions of freak shows, bearded-women, and a three-eyed man. You know, carnies...small hands...smell like cabbage. But once inside, I forgot that I was in a tent, and the show was on par with a Vegas Cirque production. I have seen Mystere at Treasure Island in Vegas, and I preferred the tent because the venue was more intimate and our seats were better. Some of the things that they do are truly amazing!! I highly recommend the show if you get a chance to see one, but the tickets are pretty pricey at $67 (although it is still cheaper than Vegas).

We then headed down to 219 on 4th street. Downtown was packed due to SXSW. I had never been to 219 because I don't go out downtown that often, but it was pretty fun. On the way home, I did the obligatory late night stop at Taco Cabana. When I got home, my brother and some of his friends were playing Texas Hold 'em so I had to join in. I actually doubled my money and then went to bed.

Sunday, I went to Home Depot and bought a new 22", self-propelled, key start, 6.75hp, Toro lawn mower. I am a total nerd and getting way too old; I am getting all excited about a lawn mower! But, it works well. I mowed the yard and then had a little incident with my dog (which was unrelated to the lawn mower), but that is a very long and sad story for another day. Thus, I didn't get the 4 miles in that would have gotten me to my 18 mile goal.

"Recovered"

I performed Polar's OwnOptimizer this morning with a result of 1--"Your test heart rates are lower than average. This indicates that you have recovered very well." Is that what you call it, "recovered?" I call it lazy. I only ran once last week, 4 miles on Tuesday night. And, I think I must have been bitten by the dreaded African tsetse fly because I slept all day yesterday.

Well, the Polar test and yesterday's lethargy were just enough motivation to get me down to Town Lake this morning. It was drizzling so the trail was fairly sparse, no dodging people just puddles. I had originally embarked on a 4 mile run, but decided to do 5 miles while on the trail so that my weekly mileage would be a paltry 9 miles instead of 8. The last 1.5 miles were hard, and I had to use mental techniques such as "Be Your Own Hero" and "...but it doesn't matter."

I imagined another runner a few feet in front of me with the familiar Asic stripes on his shoes. He appeared to be a little unsteady and seemed to be favoring his left foot. I passed him like he was standing still, and when I turned my head, I realized it was Patrick Nolan: Man Without a Shoe. After this joyous victory, I went home and picked up the dog sh*t in the back yard.

The other mental technique that I use to keep negative thoughts at bay is "but it doesn't matter." I am really tired, my lower back aches, and my left knee is starting to hurt..."but it doesn't matter." I finished the run and felt really great.

I always feel better after a run than I do before it, and try to remember this in order to remain positive. Whenever I find myself making excuses and thinking: I am tired. I have been at work 12 hours. I am hungry. I have an early morning meeting. Then, I think to myself..."but it doesn't matter!!"

Tivo

Several of my friends have Tivo or DVR and have recently commented on how much they like it. I don't ever record television and don't even own a VCR. However, I am ashamed to admit that I am a big fan of American Idol. Last week I wanted to go for a run, but it was 8:00 and American Idol was just beginning; unfortunately, Idol won. I thought to myself this is ridiculous...maybe I should get Tivo.

I ordered Tivo Saturday and it arrived last night. After only one day, I found myself trying to fast forward through the news. Doh! I caught up with live TV, and can't fast forward anymore. I think I am going to watch everything a half hour after it has aired so I can fast forward through the commercials.

I went to happy hour with some work colleagues after work this evening. We were talking about some of our incompetent coworkers, and my boss mentioned that sometimes he wishes he could put this under his name in his e-mail signature: Fuck You It is F*** Y** in Webdings. I was cracking up; I wonder how long it would take for someone to figure it out.

Later at another bar, I went to the restroom and they had the Austin American Statesman on the bulletin board above the urinal. The main story was, "Lake Austin properties have long been spared city taxes." It is a story about how most of the lakefront property on prestigious Lake Austin is exempt from property taxes due to a "special status" codified by the City Council in 1986. The average appraised value of these exempt properties is over $800,000 and includes homeowners such as Lance Armstrong, Tom Meredith (former CFO of Dell Inc.), JB Goodwin, and Dennis Quaid. This is outrageous!!