I forgot to mention that Ali and I got on the local news again. Well, the back of our heads did. My mom spotted the back of our heads running away in the pack in some video the local news shot on a piece about the race. We tivo’d it and saw it for ourselves.
Saturday we had another 5k. This one was different, it’s called the Beach Bum. It’s named this because you actually run on the beach. Ali volunteered to help with race registration so we had to get there extra early. Nothing like waking up at 5am on your day off. We never ran on sand before. We assumed it would be more difficult since sand is uneven, soft and filled with land mines. It was much harder than imagined. The race started at 7:30. Unfortunately low tide was at 4:30 am and by race time, the strip of packed sand was ridiculously thin, less than 5 feet at many spots. A few hundred yards in we came to the first of several huge man made rock formations that extend out into the water. We had to carefully make our way over it, trying to avoid falling. When we came to the second rock obstacle our luck ran out. Ali tripped and fell. She scraped up her knee, banged her hand and stubbed three of her toes. I asked her if she was ok and she said she was, so we continued. However glancing over at her shortly afterward I saw she was crying a bit. She said her toes really hurt. I told her if it really hurts she should stop but she said she would keep going.
The run was pretty miserable. The small strip of packed sand was getting smaller by the minute and you found yourself weaving back and forth up onto the loose, soft sand to avoid the waves that were rolling in. The sand that was packed was at a pretty steep angle, a disaster for runners like me with suspect knees. The tight quarters got worse once the lead runners hit the turnaround and headed back. Many people wound up with wet, sandy sneakers. including us.
Running across constantly changing terrain really sucked your energy quickly. Ali started slowing down. Several times I stopped and let her catch up. Then with about .7 miles to go, I told Ali I was going to take off which she said was fine. She later said my stopping and looking back at her was annoying anyway. So I turned on the gas, what I had left anyway. I probably passed 15 people or so in that period, even so my finishing time was close to 32 minutes. I waited at the finish for Ali who came in a couple minutes later. I cheered her on as she pushed for the finish. I wish I had a camera, just as she was coming in, a dolphin behind her jumped totally out of the water, a good six feet in the air. It would have made an awesome picture.
Ali crossed in 33 something, a very slow time for her, but it is reasonable considering the conditions the run was held in. I felt like I was just beat up. My legs and knees were hurting and areas that I’m not used to hurting, did, because of the unorthodox manner I had to run. Ali got a pleasant surprise when she found out she got second in her age group which had 9 people in it. It was her first top 3 finish and she was very excited. I was very proud of her as she accepted her 2nd place sand rake. 🙂 It was definitely the hardest 5k we ever ran. Hard enough that I don’t know that I would run it next year, my joints still feel like shit today.
The rest of the weekend was low key. We planted a bunch of trees that we started from seed and were sitting in pots on tables around the pool. I’m hoping they take root and do well. there is something rewarding about growing something from seed.
I am getting quite frustrated with the company that is supposed to rebuild our pool cage. I called twice last week and left messages, asking for an updated eta for the installation. I received no reply. We sent this guy 4600 up front and will be paying 17k plus for the job and he can’t find 30 seconds to return my call? That is bullshit.
On Sunday we had what I would call an extremely lazy day. Other than an hour or so of housework I did nothing but play WoW and watch some tv. It’s one of those things that sounds good before you do it but after you have a full day of being a bum, you feel like a bum, at least I do.
Saturday Night we watched the new King Kong movie. It had many peaks and valley’s. The special effects were great in some spots, cheesy in others. There was a bit too much of people getting killed in a gruesome manner, even for me. I don’t need to see people eaten by huge bugs and worms. The connection between Kong and the woman was touching. Jack Black’s character in the movie is a grade A-1 asshole. Overall I would give the movie a C+ to B-. It’s a full 3 hours long.
I leave for Vegas Thursday morning. I’m looking forward to it. I know the 4 days after my arrival will be filled with things that I will remember forever, good or bad.
One month into my creatine supplementation program and I put up a 265 bench press, a 20lb increase in my max. It went up pretty easily, 270 is definitely around the corner.
I want to see how this all works , it looks like I can upload pics much easier
Damn the Tivo in the bedroom grabbed a bunch of the UFC reality show episodes. I stayed up till 12:45 am watching 5 episodes back to back. It’s great stuff, reality TV mixed with hardcore fighting.
Well after 2 days of hard work, I bagged the move because the new host really lacked the flexibility I needed with the sites I host. It has been quite frustrating. Unfortunately there was no way for me to try all the site tools out till I bought in. The new host has a 30 day money back deal so it should be a pain free reversal.
One good thing is I installed Word Press on my host webspace. 🙂
For the past few weeks I have been toying around with relocating duf.net to a new provider. I can get about 15 times the amount of disk space and 15 times the amount of monthly bandwidth for about 40% of what I am paying now. The only thing that is stopping me is the big task of moving all of my “stuff” from one host to another. I have message boards, websites for friends and family, tons of pictures, videos, databases and of course this blog that would have to be moved. However if Ali gives me the go ahead I think I will tackle it. I need a challenge. However such a move could result in several things being unavailable for a period of time, especially this blog.
On Friday night I was out walking Nicki. I looked up into the sky as I often do to check out the stars and I see the moon. However it didn’t look anything like I ever saw. The way the earth was casting a shadow across it, the only thing lit up were two slices towards the bottom, separated by darkness. It looked like an alien was looking down on us. I quickly called Ali out to see it. By the time Nicki was done, the visual was gone and the moon was totally dark. It was really freaky.
Saturday morning I played some tennis with my neighbor. I’ve played tennis exactly one time since I moved to Florida and that was “against” Ali. I think the last time I played competitive tennis against someone was when I used to be a meat cutter at Weis Markets. It was close to 17 or 18 years ago against my buddy Dave. I enjoy tennis even though I am not good at it. Tennis is one of those sports where my dominant hand mixup really hampers me. I play the sport right handed, even though I throw, shoot a basketball and bat left handed. (I do write right handed) I think when I was young, my mom sent me for tennis lessons and I was taught to play right handed. I look awkward as hell playing the game, in fact the only thing I can do with authority is serve hard, albeit 95% of time it goes into the net. So my tennis game relies on stupid backspin shots that far too often sail out of bounds. Well my neighbor is not a spectacular player but he is steady. All he had to do was keep the ball in play and I would soon hit it into the net or out of bounds. I lost the first two sets 6-2 6-2. On a few of the shots where I actually geared up and tried to hit the ball hard, I instead wound up launching the ball a hundred feet out of the court. In the last set we stopped with me up 4-0 but that was because my neighbor hurt his leg so it meant nothing. I hope we get to play more so I can get some rust off my game, it was fun.
I had a big list of stuff I wanted to do and I added a bonus job. I pressure washed the entire storage shed. Over time it gets coated with nasty greenish mildew junk that needs to be blasted off a couple times a year. I was going to see if I could swap the driveshaft on my Tacoma myself but I couldn’t even budge the bolts that attach it. I just had no room to get leverage. As I was putting away the tools, two hispanic guys driving a white Escalade, wearing ties walked up my driveway and asked if we had any hispanic neighbors. I told them the only ones I knew of. They thanked me and handed me a bible pamphlet which I threw in the trash as they pulled away.
Even though I kept busy for the majority of the weekend, I felt grumpy and dissatisfied with myself. One week/weekend just seems to roll into another with little to distinguish one from the next. Call it an early mid-life crisis but damn, things just feel off to me.
I finished DaVinci Code. It was an excellent read. I plan to tackle the author’s other book, Angels and Demons. Ali said that one is even better. The facts that are tied into DaVinci Code are disturbing and enlightening at the same time. I’m looking forward to see how it translates to film. Reading the book has put me behind in my magazine reading routine. I have a big pile of Men’s Health, Muscle & Fitness and Wired magazines to get through. I will burn through that pile on the plane to and from Vegas.
I am on my 4th week of supplementing with creatine. My weight has gone from around the high 180’s up to 196-197. My one time rep bench press max has gone from 245 to 260 (today), it felt like I could have done 265 with a spotter. My other lifting numbers have gone up as well. I ran over 12 miles in the past week. My bad knee has settled down, where as in the beginning it felt real cranky, now it feels only a bit sore. The extra body weight is primarily the muscles holding extra water, making everything look a bit bigger. I am pleased with the results thus far and will continue on to see if I can hit some new personal bests.