New rubber, 2 is the new 3, meeting muck
Wednesday morning I got up early and was Tire Choice at 7am with the Camry. The Camry has roughly 65,000 miles on it and we on our second set of factory Bridgestone tires. These tires have in a word SUCKED. Within the first 10,000 miles both sets developed very bad road noise. When we got the second set I made sure to rotate them more often but they developed the exact same problem. You would drive down smooth road and it would sound like you were rolling on monster truck tires.
I came to the conclusion the tires are just junk. My conclusion was backed up by a quick Google search that showed other Camry hybrid owners getting very poor life out of these tires.
Originally I had planned to buy the tires off Tirerack.com. Their site is great for researching tires and picking out a model that is high quality but fairly priced. I had decided upon a set of Kumho tires that supposedly were very quiet and held up for a long time with a 60,000 mile tread wear warranty.
Well before I triggered the purchase I just happened to jump on www.thetirechoice.com. I bought the tires for my Tacoma there and was generally pleased. Well with a little searching I found another type of tire that actually seemed a little better, Yokohama AVID-S. They had a 65,000 mile tread wear warranty and had equally good reviews. The best part of all was they were less expensive. I could get all 4 installed for less than $400 (before state tax), a sweet deal. Basically all I had to do was print out the quote and take it to the store and they honor the price which is lower than what you would get quoted walking in the door. Oh, and the Yokohoma tires are actually made in the USA believe it or not, another nice perk.
Anyway I took the Camry in and a little over an hour later I was ready to go. The new tires quiet and hopefully will last us well after the odometer flips over to 6 digits. The best part of all was it only cost us $68 out of pocket thanks to our appliance rebate. I handed over the American Express gift card to pay for most of it, sweet!
Yesterday at the gym I officially started my triathlon training by hitting the treadmill. Two weeks ago I tried running on the treadmill and failed pretty miserably, having to stop at mile 2 of a planned 3 mile session. Well unfortunately yesterday didn’t go any better.
The plan was 3 miles at an 8:34 pace. This had been my standard base run for awhile. Well once again I struggled. About a mile in I slowed down the treadmill to a 9:13 pace and still stopped at the two mile mark. The only difference was I walked a 1/4 mile and then ran the third mile at the slower 9:13 pace.
Generally, I am pretty mentally tough when it comes to accomplishing my pre-workout goals. To not be able to do that during my last two running sessions is very odd for me. At least I did run 3 miles total and at least I don’t feel like I am physically drained the next day like last time. I am hoping it is just the end result of minimal running over the last few months. Over the weekend I want to get a biking session in with Ali as well as some swimming.
Last night I stood in for Ali at the running club board meeting. I actually had something to say at this meeting.
We have been chip timing races for the club for over two years. We also have had an issue with the registration process not morphing along with the electronic timing change. There has been resistance in the club to making significant changes to the way we register runners.
As a timer, I want as many people as possible to sign up early and to do so electronically. Unfortunately the club hasn’t done much to encourage that. Many of our races allow/encourage late registration by charging a runner the same entry fee if they sign up the day before a race versus a month before. Also the only way these last minute people are allowed to sign up is on paper.
This creates a big hassle for Ali and I. Race after race we have to make a 45 mile round trip the night before a race to pick up all of the last minute paper registrations. Then we spend a good chunk of that evening punching them in by hand, trying to do our best with what is often illegible and/or incomplete forms.
Ali and I have complained about this forever. Well last night I handed out a paper that broke down our fee structure for various races as well as what I thought was wrong and what we could do to address it. For the most part my suggestions were supported except by a couple board members. The discussion on both sides got a little heated as I expected.
In the end my point was made, now it’s just matter of seeing if the talk translates into action. The bottom line is Ali and are the ones that have been dealing with all of the hassle that these antiquated policies have presented. I have no plans on dealing with it indefinitely.
I received my replacement spindle for the mower deck yesterday. Tonight I hope to install it and have the tractor back up and running in 100% mow ready condition. We had a nice surprise when we got home last night. The new neighbor’s boyfriend was out mowing the front of our yard on his new John Deere. It was totally dark and he was mowing via tractor headlights. I thanked him for his generosity. Ali had mowed their yard which was a jungle when they first moved in so he was repaying the favor.
Ali and I are both glad that we have decent folk next door again.