Blood the new sports drink, OTA, Screaming, need another day

Saturday morning we scurried about trying to get various things done around the house.  One of those things was getting the rest of our plants in the ground as well as Ali sowing some seeds in the garden.  Hopefully we can avoid the multiple deadly time periods of frost that we had last winter that wreaked havoc with our garden and landscape in general.

I also started the HDTV antenna installation project.  Setting up the antenna took a bit of a time and a lot of referring back to the directions to make sure I had everything unfolded, extended, connected and bolted together correctly.

This sucker is huge.  It’s so big that my original idea of installing it in the front corner of the house seemed less and less appealing.  The one oak tree in that area would have likely caused issues as well due to the size of the sucker. I walked the ground trying to come up with some alternative mounting ideas.  I came up with three.

My first idea was to secure the antenna mast to one of the huge fence corner posts.  The posts are rock solid in the ground but they only extend up 4-5 feet meaning I would have 10 or so feet of mast left to sway in the wind, not a great thing.

Another idea was to mount the mast on the opposite diagonal corner of the house where there was a small section of unguttered roof line.  The problem with that spot is I would need to run the coax up along the seams in the roof over to the other side of the house where the cable enters.  That could look pretty trashy.

My last idea was to attach the antenna and mast to the smaller shed behind the house.  It has an unobstructed view to the northwest as well as a flat surface I could secure the pole to.  My worry with this location was it was over 100 feet from the termination point outside the house.  I was afraid extending the line that far would have a severe effect on signal level.

I told Ali of the three alternative options and her choice was the shed.  Having the monster antenna back there kept it out of sight which she liked.  So I decided I would give it a shot.  My thought was if it didn’t work it was easy enough to mount it somewhere else.

I drove the mast about a foot into the ground and then used a bracket to attach the pole to the structure right below the roof line.  With Ali’s help I hoisted the antenna up onto the roof and attached it to the pole.  I pointed it in the general direction, attached a piece of coax to it and was ready for testing.  After eating lunch I took the small lcd tv in the hobby room out to the shed and hooked it up to the antenna.

After programming the tv to use an antenna instead of cable I let it do an autoscan to acquire the channels.  I saw that in total it found close to 20 channels.  After it finished I started flipping through the stations and was pleased to see a crisp HD picture.  Awesome. The next part of my plan was to buy 150 feet of coax and see how my picture was running through it.

I left early to pick up my mom at work so I could stop at Home Depot to get the cable.  I also stopped at the local cycling store.  I wanted to grab a tri-top.  A triathlon top looks similar to a bike jersey, it’s very tight.  The difference is the material feels like a swim suit.  It is designed to be worn through out the event.

For me it would serve two purposes.  It would help me address my slow transition times by giving me one less article of clothing to screw with.  However with the weather forecast on Sunday I was also looking for warmth.  When I did the Miami tri I swam in just my swim bottoms.  With air temps forecast in the 40’s and water temps in the low 70’s I wanted the extra layer to help a bit with warmth.

So I headed to mom’s work for pickup.  After she got done working I followed her to her place so she could drop off her car.  Mom is pretty much a physical wreck right now.  She has complained of back issues for decades but now she has a recent knee surgery and a strained groin on top of that.  Her 25 or so years of paying little attention to her health and fitness are starting to show some consequences.

After getting back to the house we went over Ali’s checklist to make sure we didn’t miss anything before heading out.  The dogs of course were thrilled to see their Grandma as always.  We piled in the party van around 6 and hit the road heading north.

The triathlon was in Boca Grande.  Ali had checked out room prices in Boca Grande itself and they were ridiculously high.  Instead we decided to stay at a Days Inn in Port Charolette about 40 minutes away.  On the way up we stopped for dinner at a Steak and Shake.  Up until that point my only SnS experience had been the take out variety.  Sitting down for dinner was not all that memorable although I did enjoy my portabello – swiss burger.

When we got to the hotel it was already getting cold out.  Ali and I commented repeatedly how much the swim portion of the tri was going to just suck.  Ali had told me more than once she would be fine just bagging the event completely because of the weather forecast.

The room itself was quite nice surprisingly, I didn’t expect much out of a Days Inn.  It was clean and well kept with a fridge and microwave.  That was enough for me.

Unfortunately I slept very poorly on Saturday night.  I woke up so many times I lost count.  I woke up for the last time on my own before the 4:45 alarm time.  Ali said she had an equally difficult time getting solid sleep.

We planned to come back to the room after the 7:15am race to shower and check out so we didn’t have a whole lot to do before leaving.  We left for the event before 5:30. The air felt very cold, even more so by the persistent wind.  The 15 seconds from the hotel to the van was not fun, imagine what a few hours in it will feel like?

The drive into Boca Grande went smoothly.  They allowed the triathletes to cross the toll booth onto the isle toll free which was a nice gesture.  From what I could tell in the dark, Boca Grande seemed quite rural compared to much of the ultra-developed areas of SW Florida.

We checked in for the race and found out that they were canceling the swim portion of the event due to dangerous water conditions. Instead they were replacing the swim with a 1 mile run so the event would be a run/bike/run deal.  Ali and I were very happy to hear of the change since both of us were dreading the swim.  When daylight came and we saw just how rough the wind whipped water was we were even happier.

So after getting our race numbers written on our bodies and picking up our race packet we went and parked the van.  Ali was not very thrilled with the idea of being out in the windy and cold conditions more than necessary.  She had something like 5 or 6 layers of clothing on and still felt cold. I unpacked the bikes from the van and we headed up to the transition area.

After getting all of our stuff set up we had 30-45 minutes just to hang out in the chilly air.  We saw a few familiar faces and tried to take our minds off being cold by milling about.

Finally it was time to start.  They had three waves, men/women 39 and under, men 40 and over and women 40 and over (and relays).  Ali was in the first wave and started three minutes ahead of me on the one mile run.  In my wave was one my fellow running club members who also is a  board member and one of the central figures in the running community, George.  He has been running forever and is a serious runner that has run many marathons, participated in many triathlons and still finishes high in his age group even though he is getting close to 60.

I told George my goal for the one mile run was to use him as my pacer.  I stayed with him for the whole mile and as a result turned in a nice 7:48 time as a result.  That was the last I would see of George however since he got out of transition ahead of me and smoked me on the bike.

I had heard from others how the majority of the bike race will be into a head wind.  When I first started the bike which initially went south I was like, hey, what wind?  I was doing 23 mph plus during the brief southerly initial part of the race and it wasn’t that hard to do.  Then came the turn around.

All of a sudden going 23 easily transformed into doing a very difficult 15-16 into the wind.  Our direction was not directly into the wind at that point, eventually it was.

There was a section of straight away that went on for miles where the cold wind was just slamming you head on.  It was pretty hellish.  I pedaled into it the best I could but even with exerting myself I was struggling to go much faster than 14 mph.  Even with that slow speed I was doing better than many others whom I passed while going at the slow pace, one of which was Ali.

I was concerned for Ali, I knew how much she HATES riding bike into a head wind, a 50 degree, 15mph head wind was just about worst case scenario.  I passed her and then didn’t see her a second time on the ride back in.  Evidently I missed her while I was on the long turn around loop.

That ride out into the wind seemed to go on forever.  I remember feeling frustrated as some of the higher level riders would pass me easily even with the wind in their face.  When the turn around did come I was very happy. Now the wind that was punishing me for so long was helping to push me along.  I kept my pace above 20 all the way back to transition.

I still was not happy with my transitions, they were better than Miami but still when you compare them to most other racers they were slow.  Going from bike to the final run took the longest.  I just seemed to be fumbling with everything, getting my bike shoes off, sneakers on, helmet…. I was cursing under my breath.

So I hit the run course.  My legs felt very stiff as they always seem to do at first during the bike to run portion.  Early on I just try to keep moving, I have no desire to run “fast”.  I ran more than the first mile alone, I didn’t pass anyone and nobody passed me.  As I ran I noticed I had a constant taste of blood in my throat.  Evidently the cold air hitting my sinuses on the bike had made them bleed.  It was not really a great sensation while running.

Around a mile and a half I heard someone coming up from behind me, it was a woman who obviously was a decent runner.  I wasn’t real thrilled with her passing me so I accelerated and ran with her for awhile but eventually she pulled ahead.

The run course was quite nice, looping through the quaint town of Boca Grande.  It was a large contrast from running in the cement sprawl of Miami.

During the last mile or so I could hear there was another female behind me, relatively close by the volume of her breathing.  I never looked back but I knew she was there.  I didn’t want to be passed again so I picked up my pace as the finish line neared.  I managed to stay ahead and forgot to even look at who was chasing me once I finished.

My official time was 1:25:53, much better than my 1:37 something I posted in Miami but this race can’t really be compared because of the differences, the biggest of which being the deletion of the swim.  The cooler temps and lack of hills helped me dramatically in my run time which was something like 4 minutes faster than Miami. I waited and cheered Ali on as she crossed the line.  She looked quite relieved to be done.

We partook in the post race food and drink for a bit.  We took a brief look at the finish results.  It was a very small event with only 127 finishers.  My age group was the largest with 12 finishers.  I finished 9th out of 12.

Ali and I didn’t stick around long as we needed to get back to the room to shower and check out.  After cleaning up we got out of the room with about 5 minutes to spare before the official 11am check out time.  On the drive home we made a very necessary Dunkin Donuts stop.  Without it my ability to drive would have been severely impaired due to drowsiness. When we got back we ate lunch before I took Mom back home.

Before the 4:15 Eagles game I did some more work on the HD antenna.  I hooked up my 150 feet of additional coax to the antenna and hooked it to the tv to see if the picture quality suffered.  I threw this process on justin.tv for some reason. I was happy to see that all channels still came through just fine even with the additional cable length, it meant I should be good to go with the shed as a permanent location for my OTA transmissions.

The cheap lcd tv lacked a signal level meter which would be helpful in optimizing the direction of the antenna.  I figured my Sony in the bedroom would.  I unwound the cable and routed it in the lanai and into the bedroom window.  After hooking it up to the tv I was able to get a clear idea of my signal strength. The numbers I saw for the networks were all good, right around 80 out of 100.

Of course I want that number as high possible so later in the day I had Ali on the phone watching the tv while I made small adjustments to the antenna direction.  I wound up getting 84-88 signal strength which should work just fine.

I really didn’t have any expectations for the Eagles game.  They had that ugly loss to Tennessee before the break where the defense just looked horrible.  Having Peyton Manning and the Colts come into town looked like a recipe for disaster, even with Andy Reid’s perfect 11-0 post bye record.

Well the Birds managed to scrape out a win, surprising the hell out of me.  Despite the positive outcome the game brought out several episodes where I was screaming at the tv.  Some of the biggest rants were screaming at the ref’s.

First there was the penalty on the Collie hit.  That was total bullshit.  Yea it was a hard hit but it certainly wasn’t dirty.  Collie lowered his head and caused the contact.  It is total lunacy to think a defender can change his direction at the last split second to avoid that contact.  The NFL has gone way overboard now with this shit.

Then at the end of the game when the Eagles have apparently squashed a Colt come back with a fumble recovery, the refs call a ridiculous personal foul because Manning had the back of his helmet brushed by a defenders hand.  I mean just put flags on the guys, this is insanity.

I was also screaming at Andy Reid for challenging the Vick play on the goal line when it was obvious he didn’t get it, costing the Eagles a potentially important time out.  Reid has a dismal record on challenges, one of the worst in the league.

The Eagles continued to shine in penalties as well.  Every week Reid says the team has to cut back on penalties and every week they rack up double digits in that category.  It is embarrassing.

But even with my screaming aside, the team won which is all that anyone will remember.  Reid is the best coach in the game, a week after the bye at least.

Man I went into today thinking how I really need another day to get stuff done this week since daylight after work will be a scarce commodity.  I need to finalize the antenna install which means burying 150′ of cable as well as gather up and organize our many yard sale items from various locations.  I had visions of doing both via flash light.

Well when I got to work I realized that Veterans Day was this week, one of the odd days that we get off.  My prayers have been answered.  I should be able to knock out all of that junk on Thursday, perfect timing.  Now if I had another solid week off I could address some of the other larger projects that loom on the horizon for the 2010/2011 winter season.

I am amassing a decent size chunk of streaming video on Justin.tv, if you have some time to kill, feel free to go nuts watching it here.  All of the footage from the triathlon is there as well as in depth coverage of the HDTV antenna installation.