I was pretty darned sore after that treadmill effort on Monday. Running a 20min first 3 miles and then a 16:30 didn't feel all that bad....but oooof I sufferend on Wednesday.
Tuesday I ran 5 miles on the W&OD at 6:53 pace. My left hip was really tight and hurting and my right calf was a little sore. Wednesday I felt like I could barely walk. Each time I got up from my desk at work my calf was really tight. My hip wasn't as bad Wednesday, but that calf was horrible.
I decided to take the day off and went to Yoga instead. I went to Down Dog in Herndon because they offer a 1 week free trial membership. Free sounded good so off I went in my green leisure suit. My halloween costume was a big hit there. I hadn't been to yoga in a long while and it didn't take long to remember exactly why I like it......holy hell the chicks!! I met a nice girl named Kelly and set my magic carpet down right behind her. NICE!!! During the class I also fell in love with my teacher. whoa!!
Thursday I did my 5 mile lunchtime run and felt horrible. I normally do the loop anywhere from 36min - 38:30 and yesterday I ran 40:10. Everything was tired. That yoga was tough. Last night I went to yoga again and Kelly met me there. She's a cutie. Got the same instructor, damn....married. Last night was a killer. I was so sore from Wednesday night that I was barely making it through the class. Wednesday I was really working all the poses and trying really hard. Thursday I was just hanging in there. Even found myself doing nothing occasionally when nobody was looking. I was TIRED!!
Today I ran the 5 mile loop again nice and easy and I still felt really horrible and heavy but my time was 36:50, so right in line with always. My back and shoulders are just really tired from yoga. probably my hips and things are really fatigued too and I just don't feel it. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'll either do an hour run or I'll stick to my 5's. I'll be right on 30 miles I think for the week. Not many miles but I can tell the consistancy is really helping.
3 minute explanation of why you should all go to Yoga.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Hurricane
I went to the office yesterday to use the gym. Work was closed because there was some sort of weather problem in the area. I did my core work, those damn knee exercises, and then went out to run and it was cold and rainy....so I wimped out and went back up to run on the treadmill. I figured I'd might as well make myself run 3 miles easy and at least get SOME miles in. Get my metabolism going and whatnot.
I ran the first mile in 7:10 and it felt horribly slow and boring. Edged it up to 6:40 and then decided the only way I'd survive on this silly machine was to go fast. I'd wanted to run 5miles outside everyday anyways so I set myself to run 5miles. Ran the 3rd mile in 6:10, the 4th in 5:40....tried to do the 5th in 5:10 but I had to back it down near the end and got 5:16. Somewhere in that mile I decided to run 10k and I got the last 10k of a marathon going in my brain. Couldn't hold the 5:20 pace and backed it off slightly....and then slightly again for 5:33 and then the .2 I sped back up to just under 5min pace.
1 = 7:10
2 = 6:40 13:50
3 = 6:10 20:00
4 = 5:40 25:40
5 = 5:16 30:56
6 = 5:33 36:29
.2 = :59
____________
10k = 37:28
Then I jogged 3/4 mile and walked 1/4 mile. First 3 miles in 20min and then next 3 in 16:30.....I'll take that!! Of course...In my mind I was pulling away the last 5k in the marathon. The crowd went crazy.... :-)
I ran the first mile in 7:10 and it felt horribly slow and boring. Edged it up to 6:40 and then decided the only way I'd survive on this silly machine was to go fast. I'd wanted to run 5miles outside everyday anyways so I set myself to run 5miles. Ran the 3rd mile in 6:10, the 4th in 5:40....tried to do the 5th in 5:10 but I had to back it down near the end and got 5:16. Somewhere in that mile I decided to run 10k and I got the last 10k of a marathon going in my brain. Couldn't hold the 5:20 pace and backed it off slightly....and then slightly again for 5:33 and then the .2 I sped back up to just under 5min pace.
1 = 7:10
2 = 6:40 13:50
3 = 6:10 20:00
4 = 5:40 25:40
5 = 5:16 30:56
6 = 5:33 36:29
.2 = :59
____________
10k = 37:28
Then I jogged 3/4 mile and walked 1/4 mile. First 3 miles in 20min and then next 3 in 16:30.....I'll take that!! Of course...In my mind I was pulling away the last 5k in the marathon. The crowd went crazy.... :-)
22-28th training.
Friday I took the day off because I had to get all sexied up and go to a Halloween party.
Saturday I went to the Occaquan/Bull Run trail, parked at Hemlock overlook, and ran 5miles southeast towards Fountainhead park. I got somewhere passed the marina and turned around. I love that trail. It's my favorite because each mile is clearly marked. The terrain is really tough too. I ran between 7:10's and 7:50's depending on how rocky and hilly the mile was.
10miles total.
Sunday I ran 5 on the Fairfax lake trails. I saw two hot runner chicks stretching over by the new skate park. I hope they're regulars. Trail was crazy packed with mountain bikers since it was so warm and the storm was coming.
Week totals.
Mon - 3 easy
Tues - 5 easy
Wed - 6 track tempo
Thurs - 5 easy
Fri- off
Sat- 10 easy
Sun - 5 easy
__________________________
34 miles
Oh yeah...... Talked to my buddy Fernando Cabada yesterday. He recently got sponsored by Newton. I tried talking him into sending me some and he said....
"You're an idiot Terrible.....I send you Newton's you'll be whining on your blog for the next 6months that your calves are broken because you'll go run your Grandpa ass 80miles a week in them as soon as you get them and I'll feel responsible. How about I send you a care package of BenGay and diapers instead you old fuckin' geezer."
Friday, October 26, 2012
Weeks training
Monday - 3 miles. Out an back on the W&OD super easy, felt in a funk from a weekend of eating poorly, hard work, and not running. 133hr
Tuesday - 5 miles 150hr on the Lake Fairfax loop. Felt great
Wednesday - 6 miles. mile warm up and cool down with 8x 800 in 3 min with 90 second jog recovery in between.
Thursday - 5 miles. Felt pretty tired actually. 133hr was 90 seconds slower on the route than normal.
Planning to run everyday without days off just to get my body used to it. Thinking I'll make myself run 5miles every evening and then try.....TRY....to incorporate morning runs of 3-5miles. That way all my runs are short and easy but my miles edge up. I'm not much for morning runs, especially in the winter so we'll see how that works out.
I nearly got hit by a car on the way home from work yesterday on my bicycle. A oncoming car turning left into Starbucks turned right into me and I leaned way back and grabbed a healthy handful of breaks. I don't know how I didn't end up on their hood. They saw me and slammed on the gas trying to make it not recognizing how fast I was coming. I ran right up onto their car but didn't crash. Fucker just roared away. I should have gotten the license plate. grrr...
Remember folks....It's my life. I don't want to trade it for you getting your coffee 30seconds faster.
Tuesday - 5 miles 150hr on the Lake Fairfax loop. Felt great
Wednesday - 6 miles. mile warm up and cool down with 8x 800 in 3 min with 90 second jog recovery in between.
Thursday - 5 miles. Felt pretty tired actually. 133hr was 90 seconds slower on the route than normal.
Planning to run everyday without days off just to get my body used to it. Thinking I'll make myself run 5miles every evening and then try.....TRY....to incorporate morning runs of 3-5miles. That way all my runs are short and easy but my miles edge up. I'm not much for morning runs, especially in the winter so we'll see how that works out.
I nearly got hit by a car on the way home from work yesterday on my bicycle. A oncoming car turning left into Starbucks turned right into me and I leaned way back and grabbed a healthy handful of breaks. I don't know how I didn't end up on their hood. They saw me and slammed on the gas trying to make it not recognizing how fast I was coming. I ran right up onto their car but didn't crash. Fucker just roared away. I should have gotten the license plate. grrr...
Remember folks....It's my life. I don't want to trade it for you getting your coffee 30seconds faster.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Secret Blog
I have decided to preach to the choir and have started another blog. I want to keep this one just to running. The new blog will be my environmental ramblings, details from my binders full of women, my childhood stuff, political BS...and whatnots. It's going to be members only. If you'd like to read it send me a note or comment on this post. If you don't get a response that means you're better off not reading it. It'll require you to login. If you don't want to read my crap or don't want the trouble of logging in I won't be hurt not receiving a request from you.
Blog name is TerribleThinking.
I may drop all the posts from previous blogs on there in an archive to be made into an autobiography later. For now I'm still occasionally slogging away at my book and might start posting chapters online. We'll see. It's a fictional post-collapse story about a family contracted by the collection of North Eastern States that remain, to rebuild the C&O canal.
For a good brain stimulator today...and a sample of stuff you'll get on my super secret private blog....
This guy Geoffrey West is one of them smaht fellers. He outlines how growth is measurable and how it scales. For example you can show that one cell takes x amount of energy and lives y amount of days. Then you can see that for every 10 to the 4th power of cells that you have the lifespan doubles due to efficiency. Since we're all made up basically of the same cells you can then measure other things based on this theory. Mice live 2 years, dogs 15, humans 100 etc based on this doubling. Beyond that you can measure the other benefits and limitations size brings...for example mice sleep 15hrs a day, humans 8hrs, elephants 4hrs, and whales 2hrs a day.
Once he establishes this he goes on to tell how you can do the same with cities. He asks the question is New York a scaled up version of San Francisco. Is San Fran a scaled up version of smaller city, etc. What are the scalability of cites. What components (cells) are necessary and how much energy do those take. Interesting stuff. It's a long video but really good.
WHY CITIES KEEPING GROWING, CORPORATIONS AND PEOPLE ALWAYS DIE, AND LIFE GETS FASTER
First few minutes while he's setting up the biology is tough but it gets better as you go.
here's my favorite part starting around 23min in.
"Cities are the cause of the problem, and they're also the cause of the good life. They are the centers of wealth creation, creativity, innovation, and invention. They're the exciting places. They are these magnets that suck people in. And that's what's been happening. And so they are the origin of the problems, but they are the origin of the solutions."
and another spot.
"One of the bad things about open-ended growth, growing faster than exponentially, is that open-ended growth eventually leads to collapse. It leads to collapse mathematically because of something called finite times singularity. You hit something that's called a singularity, which is a technical term, and it turns out as you approach this singularity, the system, if it reaches it, will collapse. You have to avoid that singularity in order to stop collapsing. It's great on the one hand that you have this open ended growth. But if you kept going, of course, it doesn't make any sense. Eventually, you run out of resources anyway, but you would collapse. And that's what the theory says.
How do you avoid that? Well, how have we avoided it? We've avoided it by innovation. By making a major innovation that so to speak, resets the clock and you can kind of start over again with new boundary conditions. We've done that by making major discoveries or inventions, like we discover iron, we discover coal. Or we invent computers, or we invent IT. But it has to be something that really changes the cultural and economic paradigm. It kind of resets the clock and we start over again.
There's a theorem you can prove that says that if you demand continuous open growth, you have to have continuous cycles of innovation. Well, that's what people believe, and it's the way people have suggested that’s how you get out of the Malthusian paradox. This all agrees within itself but there is a huge catch."
He later describes that eventually you'd need major inovations faster and faster which isn't possible.
Blog name is TerribleThinking.
I may drop all the posts from previous blogs on there in an archive to be made into an autobiography later. For now I'm still occasionally slogging away at my book and might start posting chapters online. We'll see. It's a fictional post-collapse story about a family contracted by the collection of North Eastern States that remain, to rebuild the C&O canal.
For a good brain stimulator today...and a sample of stuff you'll get on my super secret private blog....
This guy Geoffrey West is one of them smaht fellers. He outlines how growth is measurable and how it scales. For example you can show that one cell takes x amount of energy and lives y amount of days. Then you can see that for every 10 to the 4th power of cells that you have the lifespan doubles due to efficiency. Since we're all made up basically of the same cells you can then measure other things based on this theory. Mice live 2 years, dogs 15, humans 100 etc based on this doubling. Beyond that you can measure the other benefits and limitations size brings...for example mice sleep 15hrs a day, humans 8hrs, elephants 4hrs, and whales 2hrs a day.
Once he establishes this he goes on to tell how you can do the same with cities. He asks the question is New York a scaled up version of San Francisco. Is San Fran a scaled up version of smaller city, etc. What are the scalability of cites. What components (cells) are necessary and how much energy do those take. Interesting stuff. It's a long video but really good.
WHY CITIES KEEPING GROWING, CORPORATIONS AND PEOPLE ALWAYS DIE, AND LIFE GETS FASTER
First few minutes while he's setting up the biology is tough but it gets better as you go.
here's my favorite part starting around 23min in.
"Cities are the cause of the problem, and they're also the cause of the good life. They are the centers of wealth creation, creativity, innovation, and invention. They're the exciting places. They are these magnets that suck people in. And that's what's been happening. And so they are the origin of the problems, but they are the origin of the solutions."
and another spot.
"One of the bad things about open-ended growth, growing faster than exponentially, is that open-ended growth eventually leads to collapse. It leads to collapse mathematically because of something called finite times singularity. You hit something that's called a singularity, which is a technical term, and it turns out as you approach this singularity, the system, if it reaches it, will collapse. You have to avoid that singularity in order to stop collapsing. It's great on the one hand that you have this open ended growth. But if you kept going, of course, it doesn't make any sense. Eventually, you run out of resources anyway, but you would collapse. And that's what the theory says.
How do you avoid that? Well, how have we avoided it? We've avoided it by innovation. By making a major innovation that so to speak, resets the clock and you can kind of start over again with new boundary conditions. We've done that by making major discoveries or inventions, like we discover iron, we discover coal. Or we invent computers, or we invent IT. But it has to be something that really changes the cultural and economic paradigm. It kind of resets the clock and we start over again.
There's a theorem you can prove that says that if you demand continuous open growth, you have to have continuous cycles of innovation. Well, that's what people believe, and it's the way people have suggested that’s how you get out of the Malthusian paradox. This all agrees within itself but there is a huge catch."
He later describes that eventually you'd need major inovations faster and faster which isn't possible.
Torturing Tom
I had a few weeks of torturing Tom by training in typical Terry fashion. Thought I'd better get it in here. I ran 52miles last week.
Monday 5 miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR)
Tuesday 12 miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR)
Wednesday 4 miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR)
Thursday 11 miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR and then 4 miles at 6:05 pace)
Saturday 7miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR)
Sunday 13 miles (6:40 pace)
Entirely too many. Got new shoes. Went from Brooks Ghost/Glycerin then tried Brooks Flow, and now trying Brooks Ravenna. The Ghost felt good but patella tendonitis was bad. Flow made it worse but I ran with better form and stride rate. I ran on the treadmill at PR and got a better more informed helper who spoke my language and we decided I need stability shoes instead of neutral. Tried the Adrenaline and the Ravenna and she recommended the Ravenna because it was narrower. It worked great for my 13mile run I didn't like it in the trails the other day. Didn't like it on the trails but I think I just needed to tie it tighter.
Think I'll still buy the Adrenaline online and try the narrow. I tried on the w omen's there and it felt better than the mens. Mens is D width and Women's B. They sell the men's online in B width. I'd have just bought the womens there but the color would have me looking like a fairy.
A few weeks back I had also stopped wearing my flat no drop work shoes. They're total chick magnet shoes but I think they were adding to my patella problems. I've looked for an equally magnetic pair with more support and lifted heal but have yet to decide on a pair. I've been wearing my dressier black shoes instead. I'll have to take Zoya with me for some fashion advice sometime and pick out my new brown chick magnets.
This week I've decided to lay off torturing Tom and start following his program. It's a bit boring not doing those long runs but I keep getting injured because I'm not ready. Had to take 3 days off this week because I was a jackass last week. My ass and left hip hurt. Tom's original plan was to fill me up with about 6 weeks of steady, slow, low mile days. I'll rest my ass this week and next week plan to start pumping out a few weeks of 5mile lunch runs every day. Start at 30ish miles a week and slowly add some miles. Goal is to race something in March/April time frame.
Monday 5 miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR)
Tuesday 12 miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR)
Wednesday 4 miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR)
Thursday 11 miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR and then 4 miles at 6:05 pace)
Saturday 7miles (7:40 pace- 133ish HR)
Sunday 13 miles (6:40 pace)
Entirely too many. Got new shoes. Went from Brooks Ghost/Glycerin then tried Brooks Flow, and now trying Brooks Ravenna. The Ghost felt good but patella tendonitis was bad. Flow made it worse but I ran with better form and stride rate. I ran on the treadmill at PR and got a better more informed helper who spoke my language and we decided I need stability shoes instead of neutral. Tried the Adrenaline and the Ravenna and she recommended the Ravenna because it was narrower. It worked great for my 13mile run I didn't like it in the trails the other day. Didn't like it on the trails but I think I just needed to tie it tighter.
Think I'll still buy the Adrenaline online and try the narrow. I tried on the w omen's there and it felt better than the mens. Mens is D width and Women's B. They sell the men's online in B width. I'd have just bought the womens there but the color would have me looking like a fairy.
A few weeks back I had also stopped wearing my flat no drop work shoes. They're total chick magnet shoes but I think they were adding to my patella problems. I've looked for an equally magnetic pair with more support and lifted heal but have yet to decide on a pair. I've been wearing my dressier black shoes instead. I'll have to take Zoya with me for some fashion advice sometime and pick out my new brown chick magnets.
This week I've decided to lay off torturing Tom and start following his program. It's a bit boring not doing those long runs but I keep getting injured because I'm not ready. Had to take 3 days off this week because I was a jackass last week. My ass and left hip hurt. Tom's original plan was to fill me up with about 6 weeks of steady, slow, low mile days. I'll rest my ass this week and next week plan to start pumping out a few weeks of 5mile lunch runs every day. Start at 30ish miles a week and slowly add some miles. Goal is to race something in March/April time frame.
Monday, September 10, 2012
The hot seat
I just returned from a pretty productive and fun weekend in Ohio. I took off work on Friday and scooted out of NoVa Thursday night after rush hour. Made it to my mom's house right about midnight. I ran over a cat about 2 miles from home. I prepared for the type of bump you get when riding over a downed racer in a criterium but found cats, unlike humans on a bicycle, are quite squishy. It felt like nothing more than running over a phone book. I'm not sure how the cat enjoyed its 560lb back massage though.
I woke up friday and ordered all the wood I would need to build my mom's deck. The deck would be 8x18 with a 2ft wrap around step. Effectively making the deck 12x20. I ordered all the materials and they said it would be ready for pickup in a few hours. Meanwhile I rode over to my cousins and we took apart my motorcycle to do some repairs.
I've been having a wierd electrical issue that sometimes I can trace to one specific connector and other times it's even farther back. I guessed two connectors were bad somewhere in the wiring harness. He invited his 70yr old neighbor over who enjoys working on bikes and we dug into it. We decided eventually just to run an entirely new wire. Once we got that working we got to the main problem I discovered last week and was anxious to fix. My gas line was rotting. It had been looking a bit bad and I wanted to replace it. Then on my trip home I found myself looking down at 88mph and seeing gas actually spraying out of it with 4 hours left in my trip to Ohio. That turned the want into a requirement. I did the math in my head comparing the flash point of gasoline to the outside engine temperature of a motorcycle engine and it made me feel pretty safe that I wouldn't be a flaming missile.....but seeing gas shooting out....and then running over a cat.....sure made for an anxious ride.
We got the bike all fixed up and removed a good deal of feline fur and I had to hit the road to get the wood. While I was gone my cousin detailed and polished my motorcyle and let me borrow his truck. I let him borrow $23k for a few months so I guess he felt like being a nice guy. My bike looks better after his treatment than it did when I bought it :-)
Once I got the wood the building marathon began. I worked on that deck from about 2pm Friday to 8pm. Got the ledger board on and the posts all set. Then headed to Geneva on the Lake for "Thunder at the Strip". My town is a summer resort town and it normally closes this weekend. All the businesses board up and close down for the winter. My friend owns a bar down there and came up with this Sturgis type motorcycle rally idea a few years ago. Now he makes 1/3 of his yearly sales in this 4 day event. Crazy how one good idea can take off like that. This weekend there were 30,000 bikers in town plus all the locals. It was quite a party.
When I got down there my friend Mike and his brother were trying to help the stage people get setup for the Warrant concert and things weren't going well. After an entire day of screwing up he finally fired the sound guy on the spot because nothing was working. Having worked in a production company in the Virgin Islands I had a little experience with the generator trucks and all so I said I'd take a look. Dave and I found a few problems, one of which was a loose ground so Mike pulled his truck over there and I attached the ground wire directly to the frame of his truck.....that and taking a wire brush to a bunch of the contacts and we were in business.
The cool thing was that now because his truck was there we had the perfect place to sit and watch the concert. As we watched the show the lead singer called up Dave and I and thanked us for saving the show and had Dave sing and pretend to play guitar while I banged on this spare set of drums. It's funny. I've run in track meets in Europe with thousands of people pounding on the stands. I've run marathons with millions of people lining the course. But I've never had thousands of people focused on me like that. I pretty much sucked at the drum banging but the chicks seemed to dig it. When I got back to my seat on top of the truck the girls from the "Girls Gone Wild" van came over and one by one rubbed their boobs in my face.
They wandered off and we went back to watching and a few friends I hadn't seen in 19years hopped up with us. It was a great time talking with them. Sitting in the place I grew up, listening to the 80's music I grew up with, and telling stories with the guys. What a fun night!! Later when my friend was sitting in the same spot I had been when the boob extravaganza took place (Turns out those girls are nothing but paid strippers who just mix in the crowd and pretend to be actual college girls gone wild. Then they try to incite normal girls to join them..) one of them came up to him grabbed him by the hand and drug him off for a bit of recreation. All my married friends decided that it was that particular seat and went to fighting about who got to sit there next. hahahha
The next morning I got up bright and early to run with the youth track club in my town. The coach keeps trying to get me to finish my masters degree and come back to Geneva to teach. He said he's retiring in 2 years and that everyone wants me to take over as the coach. Last time I was home a few of the junior high kids told me I was all they ever hear about whenever they tell someone they're a runner and that they're from Geneva so they've always wanted to meet me and run with me. That made my ego feel good.
After our 6 mile jog I headed back to my moms to work on the deck. My friend Jim and my aunt came over to help. I worked from about 11am until about 9pm and then headed back to the lake for another concert.
The next day I woke up and repeated the processes except this time the coach brought over about 8 of the local youth runners to help me. That was a huge help and a lot of fun. They said they wanted to give me the full court press to get me to move back and coach them when they got into high school. That was cool. We finished up the deck and steps about 2pm and again I went back down to the lake. This time things were wrapping up and I had a 6hr ride home to look forward to. I left about 7pm and got home around 2am......so I'm dragging today... OUCH!!
I'm pretty beat up from all the manual labor but it was a fun weekend. I now have only 2 more projects and my mom's house will be ready to sell. I'm waiting on permits to build a retaining wall and I need to put some siding on a part of the house where my ex dad did a shitty job. I came back to Virginia having had one of the busiest but most fun visits I've ever had. No crazy family drama! I loved seeing all the people I hadn't seen since high school. We made some plans to go on a rafting trip next spring and are pretty excited for our 20 year reunion (dang I'm old) next year.
Glad to get back to routine though. I ran 9 miles last week........ I need to see if that darned patellar tendonitis is healed and get after it.
I woke up friday and ordered all the wood I would need to build my mom's deck. The deck would be 8x18 with a 2ft wrap around step. Effectively making the deck 12x20. I ordered all the materials and they said it would be ready for pickup in a few hours. Meanwhile I rode over to my cousins and we took apart my motorcycle to do some repairs.
I've been having a wierd electrical issue that sometimes I can trace to one specific connector and other times it's even farther back. I guessed two connectors were bad somewhere in the wiring harness. He invited his 70yr old neighbor over who enjoys working on bikes and we dug into it. We decided eventually just to run an entirely new wire. Once we got that working we got to the main problem I discovered last week and was anxious to fix. My gas line was rotting. It had been looking a bit bad and I wanted to replace it. Then on my trip home I found myself looking down at 88mph and seeing gas actually spraying out of it with 4 hours left in my trip to Ohio. That turned the want into a requirement. I did the math in my head comparing the flash point of gasoline to the outside engine temperature of a motorcycle engine and it made me feel pretty safe that I wouldn't be a flaming missile.....but seeing gas shooting out....and then running over a cat.....sure made for an anxious ride.
We got the bike all fixed up and removed a good deal of feline fur and I had to hit the road to get the wood. While I was gone my cousin detailed and polished my motorcyle and let me borrow his truck. I let him borrow $23k for a few months so I guess he felt like being a nice guy. My bike looks better after his treatment than it did when I bought it :-)
Once I got the wood the building marathon began. I worked on that deck from about 2pm Friday to 8pm. Got the ledger board on and the posts all set. Then headed to Geneva on the Lake for "Thunder at the Strip". My town is a summer resort town and it normally closes this weekend. All the businesses board up and close down for the winter. My friend owns a bar down there and came up with this Sturgis type motorcycle rally idea a few years ago. Now he makes 1/3 of his yearly sales in this 4 day event. Crazy how one good idea can take off like that. This weekend there were 30,000 bikers in town plus all the locals. It was quite a party.
When I got down there my friend Mike and his brother were trying to help the stage people get setup for the Warrant concert and things weren't going well. After an entire day of screwing up he finally fired the sound guy on the spot because nothing was working. Having worked in a production company in the Virgin Islands I had a little experience with the generator trucks and all so I said I'd take a look. Dave and I found a few problems, one of which was a loose ground so Mike pulled his truck over there and I attached the ground wire directly to the frame of his truck.....that and taking a wire brush to a bunch of the contacts and we were in business.
The cool thing was that now because his truck was there we had the perfect place to sit and watch the concert. As we watched the show the lead singer called up Dave and I and thanked us for saving the show and had Dave sing and pretend to play guitar while I banged on this spare set of drums. It's funny. I've run in track meets in Europe with thousands of people pounding on the stands. I've run marathons with millions of people lining the course. But I've never had thousands of people focused on me like that. I pretty much sucked at the drum banging but the chicks seemed to dig it. When I got back to my seat on top of the truck the girls from the "Girls Gone Wild" van came over and one by one rubbed their boobs in my face.
They wandered off and we went back to watching and a few friends I hadn't seen in 19years hopped up with us. It was a great time talking with them. Sitting in the place I grew up, listening to the 80's music I grew up with, and telling stories with the guys. What a fun night!! Later when my friend was sitting in the same spot I had been when the boob extravaganza took place (Turns out those girls are nothing but paid strippers who just mix in the crowd and pretend to be actual college girls gone wild. Then they try to incite normal girls to join them..) one of them came up to him grabbed him by the hand and drug him off for a bit of recreation. All my married friends decided that it was that particular seat and went to fighting about who got to sit there next. hahahha
The next morning I got up bright and early to run with the youth track club in my town. The coach keeps trying to get me to finish my masters degree and come back to Geneva to teach. He said he's retiring in 2 years and that everyone wants me to take over as the coach. Last time I was home a few of the junior high kids told me I was all they ever hear about whenever they tell someone they're a runner and that they're from Geneva so they've always wanted to meet me and run with me. That made my ego feel good.
After our 6 mile jog I headed back to my moms to work on the deck. My friend Jim and my aunt came over to help. I worked from about 11am until about 9pm and then headed back to the lake for another concert.
The next day I woke up and repeated the processes except this time the coach brought over about 8 of the local youth runners to help me. That was a huge help and a lot of fun. They said they wanted to give me the full court press to get me to move back and coach them when they got into high school. That was cool. We finished up the deck and steps about 2pm and again I went back down to the lake. This time things were wrapping up and I had a 6hr ride home to look forward to. I left about 7pm and got home around 2am......so I'm dragging today... OUCH!!
I'm pretty beat up from all the manual labor but it was a fun weekend. I now have only 2 more projects and my mom's house will be ready to sell. I'm waiting on permits to build a retaining wall and I need to put some siding on a part of the house where my ex dad did a shitty job. I came back to Virginia having had one of the busiest but most fun visits I've ever had. No crazy family drama! I loved seeing all the people I hadn't seen since high school. We made some plans to go on a rafting trip next spring and are pretty excited for our 20 year reunion (dang I'm old) next year.
Glad to get back to routine though. I ran 9 miles last week........ I need to see if that darned patellar tendonitis is healed and get after it.
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