Archives July 2012

So Michelle, Ali’s normal training partner for her marathon training was unavailable to run on Saturday because she went to a concert Friday night.  When Ali told me this I offered up my services as her pacer, despite her training plan requiring an 11 mile run this week, a distance I have not run since the half marathon in early March.

Since the race I haven’t run any further than 7 miles and in the past month or so I haven’t run any further than 4 miles.  Jumping into an 11 mile run would not be something recommended by any conventional running logic.  Obviously I don’t subscribe to such logic.  As long as the muscle between my ears thinks I can do it that is all that seems to matter. Hell I wasn’t even planning to go to the club run on Saturday, now I am running 11, funny.

So my alarm went off at 4:45 am and I met Ali at her place so we could carpool.  Despite it being very early in the morning the air already felt like soup, heavy with humidity.  We set off at what would normally be a slow pace for me, right at or a little under a 10 minute mile pace.  It was fine with me to err on the slow side since we were running a long way.

During the first half of the run Ali and I were chatting about various things, the pace made it pretty easy to do so.  Well the second half of the run was a different story.

The sun had now come up.  I had decided to run shirtless since I knew I would be soaked with sweat.  I didn’t think I would totally sweat through my shorts as well.  I just had a constant stream of moisture flowing from my body.  I kept wiping annoying streams of water off my elbows on my shorts.

Despite the slower pace, the cumulative miles were taking their toll.  My legs were simply not accustomed to running for that far and that length of time.  Conversation between the two of us was very sparse during the long run back, we both were just trying to keep moving.

To Ali’s credit, she kept pace the entire time, in fact I was sort of letting her set the pace for a good portion of the run.  When Ali runs with me the same thing happens as when I run with Matt, she goes faster.  I have told her before that she should try to get some work in running with someone faster than herself, it will make her better.

Ali pissed me off towards the end of the run.  We were down to about a mile to go.  Despite not saying anything I am sure it was obvious I was not enjoying myself at this point.  Ali says to me something like “if you want to stop and walk back it’s fine…”

To say something like that to me when I am was in the throes of physical misery really annoyed me.  I snapped back at her “Why would you say something so stupid to me?  Since when do I stop… I should smack you on the back of your head!”   She instantly realized it was not the smartest thing to say and dropped it.

So then we are running by a hotel that has this steep incline in front of it’s front door.  Ali says she wants to run it.  I said nothing but followed along, thinking, “you son of a….”  Then just for fun there was one more smaller bridge we had to run across and back at the final turn around point.

So we now had like a half mile to go.  Despite having two legs that felt like they were filled with cement at this point I wanted to put a little exclamation point on the run, to let Ali know that if you ask me if I want to stop, I am going to make you run faster.  I picked up the pace and kept it picked up all the way back to parking lot.  Again to Ali’s credit, she was behind me but more or less kept pace. I think we wound up running a negative split. (second half of run faster than first half)

When it was all said and done we covered the 11 mile sin a sub 10 pace, something I do not think Ali has ever done before for that many miles.  I looked like a sponge that was dropped in a bucket.  I was so glad to be finished.  I think I have established 11 miles is the limit to the distance I can “just do”.

Ali was nice enough to pick up the tab for some DD coffee and a donut on the ride home.  I then loaded the girls up in the truck with their supplies for an extended stay out at the house.  Ali is up in Orlando for a conference until Thursday.

When I got home I immediately headed outside for more uncomfortable garden maintenance and weeding in the brutal heat and humidity.  When teamed up with the early morning run I was absolutely gassed after eating lunch.  I had no choice but to retreat to the bedroom and take a nap for close to two hours.  The dogs were happy to join me.

When I awoke I continued working on what remained to be done.  I took the girls with me for a ride to Home Depot.  Initially I was going to go to Lowes to buy the paint I am going to use in the bathroom.  However in an effort to save some cash, I applied for the 10% mover discount coupon on their website, figuring I can wait a couple days to get the paint.

Well I was on slickdeals.net, looking for Home Depot coupons as well.  I saw on their site that both Home Depot and Lowes honor coupons from competitors.  The post also included a link to an online True Value coupon that gave you $5 off any purchase of $25 or more.  Others reported using the coupon successfully at their Home Depot.  Hey five dollars is five dollars, that would pay for two DD coffee runs. I printed it out and had it in my pocket.

At the store I grabbed two $20 sling chairs to replace the two rotting, greenish chairs on the lanai.  I also got a new towel bar and toilet paper holder that will be installed as part of the bathroom painting project.  So I was easily past the $25 price point and presented the coupon to the woman working the register in the garden center.  I told her that I read online that HD honors competitor coupons.  I handed her the True Valu coupon that I printed off the website.

Well this seemed like news to her, she placed a call to the head cashier and asked if she could accept the coupon.  The answer that came back was no.  She said they honor coupons out of competitor ads but they don’t accept coupons printed online because of fraud.  I told her that I know others have used this coupon at Home Depot but there wasn’t much she could do.  I wasn’t going to stand there and go into a big production over $5 but it annoyed me slightly as I stuffed the coupon back in my pocket.

Sunday morning I had it my head that I wanted to do a bike/swim brick despite my legs feeling pretty tired from the long run the day before.  I also decided I wanted to take my Dawes out of the cobwebs and use it for the ride.  I have not been on it since sometime in 2011.

Wow riding the Dawes is such a different experience than riding the Trek, the geometry between the two feels dramatically different.  To be quite honest, I find riding the Dawes to be more comfortable.

With the Trek it feels like I am reaching down 10 feet to the handle bars.  This steep forward lean helps cut down wind drag but it also results in a lot of weight on top of my hands.   The Dawes position is less extreme and if I am able to utilize the aero bars comfortably, cutting down the wind drag while offering me a much more comfortable riding position.

The temperatures again were brutal.  Despite having the constant breeze from my nearly 20 mph pace, in no time I was again dripping wet.  I got down on my aero bars and stayed there for the majority of the ride, it was comfortable and efficient.  Pretty much every time I looked down at the GPS I was between 19 and 19.5 mph, topping out at 22 during the last mile or so.  I was surprised when I stopped the GPS to see my average pace was 18.9.  I must have dilly dallied too much at the turn around points I guess.

Regardless, I enjoyed the 12.25 mile on the Dawes.  I think I am going to use it for the next few rides.

I then headed inside to swim.  I was quite overheated from the ride and was looking to cool off a bit in the water.  Well that didn’t happen.  I dove in and was immersed in water that almost felt like a bath tub, it was that warm.

I originally had plans to put in 2000 in the pool but I bagged after 1200.  Swimming in warm water when you are already warm kind of sucks. For the ride home I didn’t put the top of the SSR down, I had already met my sweat quota for the day, I enjoyed the AC turned up high for the drive.

After doing some more stuff around the house I took the girls on another ride, this time to Trader Joe’s.  I wanted to stock up on their fantastic, relatively healthy microwave meals for one.  I really like them and they aren’t very expensive.

When I got home later in the afternoon I had had ideas of starting work on pulling the bathroom apart in advance of painting.  However I once again got smacked in the face with a wave of sleepiness and for the second time in as many days I laid down for another nap.  I am not sure the last time I had a dual nap weekend.

Over the weekend I watched a bunch more Falling Skies episodes.  I am glad to report I still like the show, even after getting past the episode 3 or 4 dead zone that Jeremy warned me about. I should finish up season one this week.

After eating dinner I finally regained the motivation to start work on the bathroom.  Part of this project will be the elimination of the three shelves that were installed to the left of the mirror.  I installed these things years ago and admittedly did a very shitty job of doing so.

Not only did I mess up the spacing between them, I tried to fix a loose drywall anchor with glue which wound up running down the wall a bit. For years we simply covered up the glue marks by sticking items on the shelf in front of the eye sore.

Well the shelves serve minimal purpose so I decided they had to go, I was sick of looking at them.  So I grabbed a hammer and knocked them off the wall.  The shelves left behind a considerable mess of glue and beat up drywall.  I am going to have a lot of prep/patch work to do in there before any paint gets on the wall.

So as I was in the middle of working on the bathroom I glanced out front and saw Thina sitting in middle of the yard, obviously looking for her best friend.  I thought Nicki and Sadie would have fun interacting with her so I walked them out to the back yard and called Thina over.

As soon as my dogs saw Thina they of course started barking.  Their barking instantly set Thina into scared submissive mode, she started to run away with her tail between her legs.  I called to her repeatedly and she stopped and then cautiously approached.  Eventually she belly crawled to the fence line and was sniffing with both Sadie and Nicki.

The interaction looked good enough so I opened the gate and called her in.  When she came inside she immediately went full submissive rolling over into her “don’t hurt me” pose.  Once she realized my dogs meant her no harm she sprang to life.

Within a few minutes her and Sadie were sprinting around the yard.  Thina with her long, bounding strides actually seemed to be faster than Sadie, something Sadie is not used to since Nicki is not exactly a speed demon.

Sadie also for the first time was on the receiving side of numerous dog kisses from Thina.  Sadie is always the kisser, not the kissee.  Thina was giving Sadie kisses almost non-stop, to the point where Sadie got annoyed briefly, it was funny.

I brought out a big bowl of water for the dogs.  Even though it was now well into the evening it was still very humid, they were panting heavily.  Thina drank like she hadn’t had water in days, she went back to the water bowl again and again.

Later she decided the pond was a good water source.  I ran over and tried to get her out of there.  It was too late, she was already laying on the muddy bottom and had taken a few licks of the nasty water, ugh.

Nicki played with Thina as well in a much more reserved manner, typical for her.

So after watching the dogs all play for close to an hour it was getting dark.  I figured I would walk over to the hispanic owners house yet again and tell them to come get their dog.  I thought maybe forcing them to come get her would allow me to stress once again that the dog HAS to be kept safe.

As I walked into their driveway I looked back and saw Thina was following me.  I also saw a large truck coming, driving well over the 30 mph speed limit.  I yelled for Thina to stop but since she has had absolutely no training, she continued to approach.  She JUST missed getting hit by the asshole driving the truck.

Now I was pissed.  I almost watched these people’s dog become road kill because of their lack of responsibility.   I walked up to the door and rang the doorbell, ready to be much more forceful in my plan of action for the dog.  Nobody was home.  Great….

My anger multiplied when I looked down at the pet dish that was by the door, something that looked like it was made for a cat or a small dog. The dish had nothing in it, no food and not a drop of water.  Knowing how brutally hot it was on Sunday I realized why Thina was so damn thirsty.  We have now officially entered into the realm of animal abuse.

So I took Thina back over to my backyard and left her in there with my dogs.  I then went back over to the hispanic’s house and started trying to block up the numerous holes in the shrubs.  In addition to using a number of dead palm fronds I even grabbed some unused shelving of mine to assist.

Well I soon realized that there was a whole other set of potential escape points on the other side of their driveway, this was going to be a fruitless effort.  The only way to stop her from escaping would be to put up some sort of temporary fencing along the front property line.  I would place the odds of these people doing that at slightly above zero.

After my blockade attempt I went back over to my property and hopped on the computer.  I printed out two letters, one in Spanish and one in English.  The letter basically said that I witnessed their dog just miss getting hit and she keeps getting out of the yard.  I said if I saw the dog out of the yard again I was contacting county animal control.   I taped both versions on their door.

I then grabbed a leash and walked Thina back over to her house.  Sadie was not happy at all with me as I took her new friend back home.  I brought some of our dogs dry food with as well.  I filled her tiny dish with food and water.  She hungrily gulped down the food all three times I filled it.  She also seemed to have a hard time drinking the water since the bowl was small.  I actually walked back to my place and brought over a larger spare bowl for water and left it there.

I hung out across the street well into darkness, hoping the owners would return so I could let them know what went down and what I think about it.   Finally a little after 9 I finally went back to my place.  Thina was worn out from all of her play and actually stayed put thank goodness.

I was so annoyed that I ignored the “one more time” warning in my letter to the family and placed a complaint with animal services via their web site.  I plan to follow up with a phone call today.

The bad thing is there is a process that has to be followed.  They will first warn the family a couple times, and then maybe eventually fine them.  I am not sure at what point they actually would take ownership away from them.

The saddest thing is no matter which way this goes, unless she gets removed from the house, Thina is the loser.  Even if they actually do something to prevent her from getting out of the yard they still will keep her thrown outside with scare food and water, cut off from any sort of love that she obviously is craving.

Ali decided she couldn’t justify a 6 hour round trip to go to the Tarpons “Ultimate Bowl” tonight.  Unless I can snag a last minute “date” I will wind up just going by myself.  I think I am going to spring for one of the good seats close to the field.