Track Weekend #2 :-)

I knew I'd like going to the track even before I went... Angela did too ;-) So, without jumping off the deep end my plan is, for now, only attend The Drivers Edge events that take place at the local track down in Cresson TX (they go to two others tracks - Houston MotorSport Ranch and Texas World Speedway in College Station). I'd eventually like to try both of those tracks, but right now it's not practical.

So... the weekend of Dec 4th & 5th I went back down to MotorSport Ranch in Cresson to run the 1.7 mile track in the opposite direction from last time.

Even though I'd run the track before, coming at it from the opposite direction makes it a whole new track. The line you take when running the track Counter-Clockwise is definitely not the line you take when running it Clockwise! I also had a different instructor this time, who had a very different approach to things. I liked him just as much as my last instructor. They both offered info that helped me improve! I was a bit more comfortable this time, so I was pushing the car a bit harder, and my tires show it! The good thing was I improved my lap times from the last time by a full 5 seconds! I was very happy with that, plus the kudos I was receiving from the instructor. He, like my instructor last time, was very surprised my car still has it's stock suspension. We were one of the fastest cars on the track. Felt good to pass Corvettes, and stripped down race cars :-) It felt REALLY good when guys I passed on the track would come up to me afterwards, introduce themselves and want to talk.

I took video again of every run. Here's the last few laps of the 1st run on Sunday. These were some of my quickest laps of the weekend, mainly due to the fact my instructor was introducing me to some new techniques during the later runs that day so they weren't as "pretty" (more on that in a moment :-)



During the last run of the day my instructor was trying to get me to downshift during braking instead of after braking while entering the turn. Downshifting during braking (without throttle) is a pre-curser to heel-and-toe. I say he was trying to get me to do it because he was explaining it in pieces, and I didn't know what the end result was that we were shooting for... in other words me no-comprende what he say... So I was trying to figure it out "on the fly" so to speak... while going 100mph :-) Here's when I finally figured it out... well, actually, it was because of this that I finally figured it out ;-)



No harm, no foul... and it actually was kinda fun ;-) No damage done, and the car is fine. And since I learned something from it, it was worth it!!

You know... I gotta mention one thing... notice the instructor's feet during the spin... the guy doesn't flinch! Either he's got nerves of steel, or he has confidence in me... Or I guess he could just simply be crazy... yeah, that's probably it!!!

Half Marathon... CHECK!!!

!!!!Mission Accomplished!!!!

Angela, Keith & I accomplished our goal! All of us finished the Fayetteville Half Marathon! I gotta say, I was a little intimidated... A cold front blew through the night before and winds were about 30mph... not necessarily a big deal... However, the temperature during the race was a BRISK 18 degrees!!! And yes... the winds were still blowing 30mph during the race!!! It was FREAKIN' cold! The Gatorade and water at the aid stations during the race were frozen. I was bundled up like Kenny in South Park, and I ran like that the whole race. I sweat like crazy, but I wasn't cold ;-)

We had a nice treat as well... Angela's parents flew out to cheer us on. We really enjoyed having them there and had a blast the entire time!

Keith paced the field... his goal was to finish in less than 2 and a half hours, which he did. His final time was 2 hours 19 minutes 52 seconds. Angela finished in 2 hours 38 minutes 11 seconds. My goal was simply to finish... with a secondary goal of not finishing last... I accomplished both :-) I finished in 2 hours 40 minutes 21 seconds. The full results can be found here.

The course we ran was 13.1 miles in length. Here's a map:


We started on the University of Arkansas campus (bottom left of the map) then worked our way North through town, back South, then did a loop and repeated part of the course before returning back to the University of Arkansas campus to finish on their outdoor track. The course had some pretty steep hills on it (see the course profile at the bottom of the map) and ranged from some really busy streets to a bicycle path. All in all, it was more fun than I expected, and I had a much better run than I expected! The first 5 miles seemed to fly by, and I was pretty comfortable up until about 11 miles. After that, my right knee really started tightening up. I usually finish pretty strong but it simply wasn't happening this time. If I wanted to finish, I was gonna have to take it easy so I did. The end result... Mission Accomplished!!!

Oh... and to answer the most commonly asked question since the race...

No, I'm not running a marathon next! In fact... I'm going back to weight training.

Running sucks...

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 99

Wound up running pretty late tonight... finished the run about 9:20pm (yuck!) It was a weird run. It felt good for a change (that's enough to consider it weird!). However, I finished the whole run, well... running ;-) Lately, that's unusual for me. Especially at the pace I was running. Another weird thing was I started getting tunnel vision during the last mile. This continued and got worse through the remainder of the run... but I didn't feel like stopping. I wasn't struggling, and wasn't overly winded, so I trucked on. I think I realized with about 1/3 mile left to go I was getting another blood sugar crash. This one was much less severe than the one I had a while back. I was able to keep running, but as soon as I got back to the house that was about my limit! I gotta stay away from those simple carbs at work!!! End result was 3 miles in 32min 39sec (10:53mi).

Thanksgiving, Sick, and 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 95

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Ok... so it's a couple days late, but hey... we're still just as thankful for everything we've been blessed with! Thank you!

So it's been a while since we've posted. We haven't run too much either. Both of us have "sorta" been sick a bit over the last week or so. We hate being sick! It hasn't really been that bad, but bad enough. Anyway, Angela forced herself to get out and run Monday earlier this week. I didn't join her on her 5 mile journey. She did well though but didn't time it.

A cold front came through early Thankgiving morning and we got our first freeze Thanksgiving night... a far cry from the 84 degrees it was the day before! (sorry... I'm gonna whine here for a sec...) So, Friday, my first run in a week, was with a little congestion and runny nose, in colder temps, and with a bum knee (done whining...) We chose to do 5 miles, and I was trying out a new knee strap for my suspected osgood-schlatters issue. It helps, but the biggest difference comes once the knee is warmed up... I can tell I definitely need to be careful on it the first mile or so. After that its just annoying and makes me run funny :-) I'm thinking about possibly trying out tape instead of the strap since the strap seems to slip down just a bit while running. Taping for osgood schlatters.

Angela looked good during the run. I told her to go ahead and run her own pace and not worry about me. Even though she took a good break at the halfway point for some water she still managed a 55min 45sec time (11:09mi) for the 5 miles... she surprised herself. I came in over a minute later... 57min 13sec (11:27mi).

We're hoping to stick with the remainder of the schedule from here on out. Not too much longer to go now :-|

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 86 & 88

During last Sunday's long run I noticed some pain below my right knee... nothing major, more annoying but definitely noticeable. Monday it was more pronounced, and Tuesday was worse, so I started wondering about it... Internet checks initially pointed to "runners knee" but their descriptions of it didn't seem to fit exactly... a little more digging and I think its a case of "osgood schlatters disease". Basically a fancy name for irritation and little micro-tears in the tendon that connects the bottom of the knee-cap to the top of your tibia (lower leg bone). Treatments for a mild case are to take it easy. I have no problem with taking it easy :-) So, no run on Tuesday. Besides, the way I was walking at work I was a little worried I might do some damage if I did try to do a run.

Since Angela didn't do the long run Sunday she was really wanting to get some form of cardio activity... Wednesday was pretty cold and the wind was blowing like crazy. I asked that we not go run in it, so Angela suggested we do the P90X Plyometrics workout. Sounded like a good idea so we did. That one definitely gets your heart rate up! I took it pretty easy though... the knee was still tender.

We skipped the Thursday run, and decided tonight that we'd go out for a short 3-miles, taking it really easy! (we both joked how referring to 3 miles as "short" was absolutely UNHEARD of before we started this) My knee is still slightly tender, and Angela is way more sore than she expected from the Plyometrics workout :-) We took it slow and easy tonight... 3 miles in 35min 46 seconds (11:55mi). I want to do the long run this weekend so I REALLY didn't want to hurt my knee anymore.

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 83

Some good news & bad news today. First the bad... Angela complained of being sick to her stomach last night. Things didn't get any better over night, and she's all into being sick today. We're not sure what it is or how she got it, but its safe to say she didn't run today :-| I'll be keeping a pretty close eye on her... Get well soon baby!

As for the good news, I finished 10miles today! That's almost 4 miles farther than I've ever gone before! I ran a 10k (6.2miles) something like 20 years ago, and that was a huge acomplishment for me at that time. I've never run anything close to that until the training here recently. Knowing that, I went into today with the single goal of finishing... I didn't care what my time was or how much I walked... I just wanted to finish. I was concerned at first because the first 4 miles were tough! I walked a bunch of times. I had a power bar at 4 miles, and the next 4 were much better ;-) I don't think I ever ran more than a mile at a time, but my walks were short. The end result was, I FINISHED... mission accomplished! As a side note, the neato watch said I burned almost 1200 calories (yikes!) Total time today 1 hour 55 minutes 17 seconds! (11:32mile) Never did I ever think I'd be running/walking fast for that long... just wasn't an option a couple months ago! Weird!!!

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 81

This was our first actual experience with interval training. We chose the 2.5 mile route, and the idea was to run a fast pace for 1/4mile, slow jog/walk for 1/4, fast pace again for 1/4, etc. As soon as we started Angela shot off like a rocket. I tried to keep up but was humbled pretty quick. I tried to remind her that we had to do this a few more times... didn't help... she pretty much humbled me every single time... that is until the last segment. I had a little bit left, but she somehow knew how to push herself right to the limit... she'd pushed herself to the point she was basically done on the last fast segment. End result was we walked or did a really slow jog for 1/2 of the total distance, and ran a pretty quick pace for the other half. The one time I looked at my heart rate it was up over 180bpm. Total time to finish the 2.5mi was 26min 33sec for the 2.5mi, which comes out to a 10:37mile.

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 80

Angela ran 4.0mi Wed night knowing she'd probably miss Thursday's run due to other commitments. So yesterday I set out to run 5 miles solo. Two laps around our 2.5mi course. It's been a while since I've felt that good running, and I was keeping a decent pace. Then about halfway through I could tell I was having a blood sugar crash. I can honestly say I've never had one of those while running... of course, I've only really been running on a regular basis four about two and a half months... but anyway... I'm pretty sure it was due to the donuts and cake I had at work today (coworker's birthday + Veterans Day)... maybe I should rethink those the next time (duh!) I decided to push on committed to getting my 5 miles. Only problem was I started getting tunnel vision, light headed and stumbling a bit... it was time to turn around! I alternated a lot of walking and jogging on the way back to the house. Once back at the house the watch told me I had gone a total of 3.75mi in 42min 47 sec (11:25mi)... shame, because I was doing so much better than that initially. Oh well.

NASCAR & 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 77

Tons of stuff going on this weekend... Angela & I were in Krum TX (~50mi North of Fort Worth) Saturday mid-day for a pot-luck style get together at the farm where we get our raw milk. Lots of people, and lots of food... and WODERFUL milk! From there we headed home for a very short time before heading to Granbury TX (~40mi Southwest of Fort Worth) to visit my Grandmother for her birthday. It was a good time and we had a good visit with the grand parents :-)

Sunday was NASCAR day... Yeah Baby! The 2nd 2010 race in Texas, the 34th race of the 2010 season and the 8th race in the 2010 Chase for the Championship! My friend Jeff & I attend both races each year here in Texas. This time though we were joined by my dad... it was his first NASCAR experience. I definitely enjoyed having him there, and was honored to share the experience. Plus, it was a really cool and interesting race!


So, with everything going on this weekend we didn't exactly focus on running. Today though it was time to get back to some sort of responsibility :-| Angela had a soccer game so she was covered... me... I had to act responsible (sigh...) So, with all great intentions, I set out to run... I wound up doing "only" 3 miles. I have no idea what my time was because my running watch died about 1 mile into the run... I expected it though since I got a low battery warning when I turned it on. But I wasn't going to wait for it to charge up before hand... I was already running pretty late. I managed to do the 3 miles with only 2 short walks so it wasn't too bad.

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 73

5 miles Thursday... wasn't looking forward to it... but it got done. Halfway through we decided to make a detour into the house to blow our noses... it was cold, so we had a little longer "break" than normal during this run. Total time: 59min 43sec (11:57mi... maybe we shouldn't take such a long break during the half marathon :-)

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 72

Raining last night when we shoulda been running. Angela & I decided to do it tonight instead. She felt good, I was struggling... ugh! We managed a 32min 9sec time for the 3 miles which wasn't too bad (10:43mi).

Happy Halloween! Goal Change Again, and Birthday Presents

Ok, so it's been a while. A lots gone on. A week or so ago just after Angela & I signed up for the 10k, I got a call from the race director... weird. She told me for "logistical reasons" they had to cancel the 10k... GREAT! She gave us the option of moving to the 5k (tempting, let me tell ya!) or the 1/2 Marathon. Well... being that I was on the spot and had to make a decision all I could think of was Angela would hate me if I chose the 5k... so 1/2 Marathon it is (sarcastic "yea!"... just kidding). So, I need to revamp the schedule again ;-)

We both ran 3 miles on Friday the 22nd, but at different times. Mark-32min 42sec (10:54mi) Angela-33min 58sec (11:19mi)

Last weekend my birthday present came due :-) Angela treated me to a weekend of fast driving! I participated in a "High Performance Driving Event" with The Drivers Edge on the 1.7mile road course race track in Cresson Texas. For anyone that's interested in driving their car fast in a controlled and relatively safe environment, this is the way to do it! 2 days and eight 25-minute sessions on the track with an instructor in your passenger seat giving you real-time feedback. I learned so much and got to where I was pushing my car father than I ever thought possible. The really cool thing is, I know there's a lot more in it once I work on my technique... Can't wait to do it again!!!

Here's some video of me on the last run on the last day:



Angela was out of town last week on business. She was pretty busy and didn't get a chance to run. Me... I was just lazy. Today though, we finally got out and did 6 miles while the neighborhood kids were just starting to do their trick-or-treating. With all the rest we had, and the fact that we walked quite a few times, and stopped to talk to some of the neighbors ;-) it didn't seem too bad at all. Total time was 1hr 11min 12sec (11:52mi)

New Schedule... and a Change in Goals ;-)

Ok, so if you've been following us at all you'll notice that the 1/2 Marathon Training Schedule looks a bit different... Well, that's because its now a 10k Training Schedule. My practical side took over and I decided I was going to do the 10k instead of a half marathon (we're registered so it's a done deal now!)... plus Angela wanted to incorporate some weight training in there as well (I love that girl!!!). So here's the deal... we'll keep our long runs on Sundays (same day as race day), they'll just be a bit shorter now. Mondays and Saturdays are rest days. Friday is the short run day followed by a little bit of weight training. Wed & Thur are weight training days as well (we plan for one of these days each week to be legs in order to work on our joints to hopefully avoid knee injuries). And Tuesday is interval training day. This will be alternating 1/4mi sprints (x5) & 1/4mi walks (x6) for a total of 2.75mi. This is to hopefully build up some speed... it could happen ;-)

Ok... sounds good in theory... lets see what happens!

Oh yeah... we did our 5mi run tonight. We had 4 or 5 short little walks in there but still managed a decent pace. M-55min 19sec (11:04mi) A-55min 42sec (11:08mi)

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 53

Missed our 4mi run yesterday so Angela & I decided to do it today instead of the 3 on the schedule. Mark: 42min 52sec (10:43mi); Angela: 43min 24sec (10:51mi)

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 50

Struggled this morning again, but forced myself to finish. Looking back over the last few 3 mile runs this morning's was my worst time yet... 33min 7sec (11:02mi)

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 48

This morning the schedule said 4miles. I sorta felt up to it, but that's not un-typical... I usually do well on those days I "sorta" feel like going (usually do bad on the days I initially feel good)... Anyway, I planned to shoot for a target heart rate today (wearing my new fancy-dancy runners watch :-) which was my theorectical 80-85% rate, or basically 155-165 bpm. Well, you know what they say... all good plans sometimes just go to... er... heck. I was less than a quarter mile into my run, pulling a little less than an 11min/mile pace and my heart rate was already 160 (I didn't really need a heart rate monitor to tell me I was already suffering). I tried the remainder of 2 miles to keep my heart rate below 170, and that proved to be almost impossible even slowing to an 11:30/mi pace. Something just wasn't right, so I called it quits after 2miles.

Some guesses: Lots of caffeine yesterday, not a night over 7 1/2 hours sleep in the last week, and a really bad diet yesterday (but left over mexican food is ALWAYS hard to turn down).

Today I had to go into work for 5 or 6 hours. At sunset, Angela did her 4 miles, and I decided to tag along for the 1st 2 to atleast get my mileage in! Pace was a little slower than this morning, but the heart rate was MUCH slower... ahhh that was much better! I could breath!

I'm super proud of Angela, she ran the entire 4miles! She even looked like she could run some more after she was done... Good Job Baby! Angela's Total time: 46:50 (11:43mi)

Car Stuff, Sushi & 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 46

Wednesday I left work early to get my car inspected for the upcoming track day mentioned a couple days ago. This wasn't the typical state inspection, it was instead a safety inspection to make sure I can drive the car hard on the track... safely :-) I'm happy to say it passed! Excitement level rising!

Yesterday we missed our run. Got up too late and then we had dinner plans with friends... sushi! Hadn't had sushi in a while and we tried a new place, Hui Chuan Sushi on Camp Bowie... pretty good stuff, and it was good to get caught up. Good Times!

This morning I was determined to get my run in (Angela's planning hers for tonight). It's definitely getting cooler outside. I decided to run the 1.0mi course 3 times and take 2 "water breaks" (if 5-7 sec of walking while chugging a couple ounces of water can be called a water break :-/ ). I also tried out my new runners watch this morning. I tried to maintain a 10min/mi pace from the start, and that proved to be difficult. I paid for it the whole time... I hurt the whole time. May have to shoot for something a tad slower, but I've got time to manage that. I've got a way to monitor it now... toys! End result: 31min 57sec (10:39mi).

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 43

It only took about 1.25mi into my 3.0mi run this morning for me to make the decision that I was only going half way. Just not a good morning. I did manage to sprint the last quarter mile to feel like there was some accomplishment. Of course, some perspective may be in order... just 5 weeks ago I was doing good to simply make 1.5mi. Total time - 14:36 (9:44mi)

Car Stuff & 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 41

For my birthday a while back my WAY-Cool wife got me a weekend at The Drivers Edge High Performance Driving Event down at the local road course race track, MotorSport Ranch. The really cool thing about this is you use your own car. It's basically a 2-day class on how to drive your own car to it's limits around a dedicated race course... how cool is that! Ever since I found out, I've been prepping my car for the event. I actually have to get a performance inspection done before my car will be allowed on the track... makes since, since I'll be pushing it pretty hard... I hope :-) I replaced the front brakes a couple weeks back. Day before yesterday I had new tires put on it. Today I flushed and replaced all the brake fluid with higher temp DOT 4 fluid. Angela was wonderful and helped me bleed the fluid through the lines. I also replaced the rear brakes today and tracked down (& hopefully fixed) a suspension squeak I had in the right-rear. I think I should be good for the inspection now... we'll see. I hope to get it done this week.

I didn't run this morning... Angela & I went after sunset. Today was long run day, so the goal was simply to finish. Firt time doing 3.5miles, and our plan was to do our 2mile course, have some water then do our 1.5miler. Things actually went well, and I'm proud of Angela! She stuck with it the entire time... we finished together!!! 37minutes even (10:34 mile).

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 39

This morning was one of those days that makes me wish I could keep track of my pace during our run. I felt like crap even though I was running a "slow" pace. Angela & I stayed side-by-side for about half the run then she started dropping off the pace a bit. I felt like I was dogging it, and I was breathing a little harder than usual... nothing major, just noticeable. Anyway, I was really fighting with myself about walking for a bit. Finally, at about 2miles I made a deal with myself (there's lots of time to have conversations with yourself when you're running ;-)... If I walked, I better finish hard and not stop again no matter how much I wanted to. So, I walked for a bit... maybe only a couple hundred feet. I ran the rest of the way... not my hardest, but quicker at least. Once I checked the times it became obvious why it felt harder than I thought it should've. My time was 24min 34sec (9:50 mile) Surprised me. Bad thing is, this means I should probably expect a reality check on Sunday... ugh...

Angela's time: 27min 15sec (10:54 mile)

Oh, no running Thursday... I had a convenient excuse... I had to get to work early. Then I was just lazy and didn't feel like it when I got home.

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 37

I wasn't much up for doing anything yesterday morning so running was a no-go... put it off till today. Unfortunately that means I'll be running 3 days in a row. Angela has decided that she wants to start running in the evenings, so we'll probably be going solo here for a while. Temps are getting cooler here lately... upper 50's during my run this morning. Plus I got started a bit earlier today as well so it was dark the entire time. Entire run felt good for a change. 25min 25sec (10min 10sec mile).

[UPDATE] Angela ran 2 miles after work today in 21min 35sec (10:47 mile)

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 34

Time for our first 3 miler :-) Angela was up for it (ok... as much as a motivated type person that hates running can be up for it!) I wasn't... In other words, pretty typical! It's been suggested that on longer runs water should be consumed about every 20min so we decided to put some dixie cups out on our mail box, and then run 2 laps around our 1.5mile course. This way we could get a little water halfway through without having to carry it. turned out pretty well... after the first mile and a half we dropped to a walk, downed the water, tossed the cups in the yard and continued on... felt like real runners ;-) Things went pretty well. Angela stuck with me up until about 2.5mile then she dropped to a walk for just a short distance. I picked it up with about 1/3mile to go and had a good finish. End result M-31min 30sec (10:30mile), A-32min 20sec (10:47mile)

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 32

Ugh... This morning wasn't exactly stellar for either of us :-( Angela mentioned not feeling up for it but wanted to get it over with anyway. I suggested we do 2 laps around our 1 mile route instead of our normal 2 mile route. That way she could bow out if needed and not have a long walk home ;-) We agreed that was the plan so off we went. It didn't feel too bad to begin with but after about 3/4mi it did. After the 1st lap Angela dropped to a walk, I checked my watch and noticed it had been about 10min 40sec, and continued on. I actually dropped to a walk as well on a hill with about 1/2 mile to go... but only for a short ways. End result was 23min 8sec (11min 34sec mile). Angela finished about 45sec later. We'll need to regroup before Sunday's 3.0 miler :-/

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 29 & 31

Monday night Angela had a soccer game so the Tuesday morning run was just me. I felt good, but turned out the pace was slower than I thought... 10 min 14 sec mile for a total of 20 min 28 sec for the total 2 miles.

Last night Angela finally decided to get some running shoes (uh oh... she's committed now!) This morning we both did the 2 miles together... she took off like a rocket! Note to self... must be the shoes ;-) Since I planned on running a quicker pace today I decided to try to hang with her... I soon relized she was going way faster than I wanted so I settled into my usual spot... behind her :-\ I was definitely running a quicker pace than normal though so I was ok with that. She maintained her lead for quite a ways and I was struggling. That quick pace in the beginning was wearing on me. Overall the end result was a 19 min 58 sec total (9 min 59 sec mile) for me, and a 20 min 23 sec total (10 min 11 sec mile) for Angela. I may give her strategy one more shot (start strong then back it down after that in the hopes it feels "easier" to keep going for the long haul)... but if today is any indication... it's painful!

Boston Trip & Aerobatics

So Angela's sister Alicia has been asking us for a while to come visit her in Boston where she's on "temporary" assignment for work. This past weekend we finally went. The first day there we started out by simply being lazy (hey, it's vacation!) followed a little bit later by a tour of Fenway Park, and the we attended the game later that night. Unfortunately Boston lost, but it also happened to be the night the famous Citgo sign was relit for the first time since July! The large 3,600 square foot sign had all of it's lights replaced and just by luck we happened to be there the night they relit it.

On Saturday we headed North into New Hampshire and eventually made our way to an apple festival Angela had her eyes on. It was pretty neat, we got to pick our own apples, and they had some of the best ice cream I've ever tasted! Saturday afternoon we simply took the long way home and stopped at a bunch of places along the way taking it all in. Lots of pretty country up there.


Sunday was what I'd really been waiting for. We went whale watching before heading to the airport... All indications were we got very lucky with all the activity we saw! The whales were almost posing for us! We got some good pictures :-)



Monday I took a vaction day to attend the National Aerobatics competition up in Sherman Texas with some friends. I had never been and we used it as an excuse to be camera geeks for the day. Ever seen the the photographers around the end zones of an NFL game... yeah, it sorta looked like that, just most of us had less expensive equipment ;-) Unfortunately it turns out the planes were WAY higher than we had expected so even with some really nice zoom lenses, the picture taking wasn't all it could have been. We enjoyed walking around the planes though.

(I hope to get a picture or 2 up here in the next couple of days)

Anyway... these are my excuses for not running Friday & Sunday... and I'm stickin' to 'em!

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 24

Angela joined me this morning... Hooray! She left me like I was standing still in the 1st qtr mile... boooo! I had to fight the urges to try to keep up and instead stick with my pace. Kept the head down, focused, and only occasionally looked up to make sure she wasn't leaving me too bad ;-) I was impressed, she did pretty well... the last run longer than a mile and a half we did she walked part of it. Not today. She eventually slowed, and I over took her, but she ran the whole thing... nice! Today's run wound up being 20min 53sec for 2.0miles (10min 26sec mile).

Hot Rodders and 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 22

Ok, so we made it to the drag strip Sunday night. The local 1/8th mile stip has "Fun-n-Grudge" racing on Sunday nights, so my friend with the 2010 SS Camaro and I (with my 2002 Z28) headed to the track. It was the first time either of us had been so there were some nerves involved... but a lot more fun involved!!! We got to beat on our cars a little bit, do it legally, and more importantly find out who had the faster car ;-) Seriously though... it was all in good fun and we're still friends :-)




As far as the training... what is it with these short runs following the long ones being a reality check! Today was a mile and a half. The pace felt quicker than Sunday, but not excessively so. I tried to maintain the quicker pace but keep it in check slightly to save some. I only slowed up after a little over a mile, but that was only for about an 1/8th or so. I picked it up at the end for about twice the distance I usually do. I expected a sub-10min mile, but when all was said and done I was surprised to see a time of 15min 36sec (or a 10min 24sec mile)... hmmm... Thinking afterwards about what could've caused me to feel like it was faster when it really wasn't: sleep (less than 7hrs the last 2 nights in a row), nutrition maybe (haven't been keeping track of it too much), I just stink at running and really don't know what I'm doing (I think we've found our answer!)

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 20

As weird as it sounds, I was looking forward to today's run... first time doing 2.5 miles. Now I didn't say I was excited, or looking forward to running... I still don't really like running! But I was looking forward to today's 2.5mile run. I've been gaining some confidence with my running so even though it was my longest run to date, I was looking forward to seeing if I could do it. So the goal today was simply to finish it... sorta like my eventual goal for the half-marathon... just finish it! No goal for pace today, just see if I can finish all 2.5 miles running! I'm happy to say I did! ... and in 26min 17sec, so pace turned out to be a 10min 31sec mile, so that wasn't too bad either... BONUS!

Hot Rod Wanna-Be's and 1/2 Marthon Training - Day 19

Last night a friend of mine from work and I planned on racing each other at the local 1/4-mile drag strip (Texas Motorplex) down in Ennis TX. It was all for fun -- I had recently made some mods to my 2002 Z28, and her new ride is a 2010 SS Camaro -- and we were ready to race ;-) Unfortunately the track made the VERY last minute decision to cancel the races due to delayed construction work because of all the rain we've had recently. Oh well... we'll have to plan it again real soon!

Yesterday the schedule said we were supposed to run a mile and a half... that didn't happen either. Didn't get enough sleep the night before and REALLY didn't feel up to it.

Ahhh... sleep is a wonderful thing! This morning we awoke after about 9+ hours of sleep (I was closer to 10... Angela got up before me). Ate a little something, Angela went to the farmers market and picked up some goodies, then we went for our run after she returned. Very humid today, but cloudy and a bit windy. It was all good though. I pushed myself a bit harder than usual but was careful not to push too hard (maybe a wuss... who knows...) The end result was a 9min 42sec mile average for the mile and a half... good enough! Maybe there's something to this sleep thing!

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 17

Tropical Storm Hermine has been dumping on us the last few days so it made for an easy excuse not to run on Tuesday. Of course, I could've done some sort of cardio work in doors, but didn't. This morning though the skys were dry - not clear, just no rain falling... it was humid! So it was time to get a run in. I didn't have any problems with getting winded, which was nice although surprising. My problem was energy. I got a late start so there was a lot of traffic with the parents getting their kids to school. I had to make 2 little brief stops to wait on cars to pass... the end result was a time of 15min 45sec for 1.5miles.

1st Birthday & 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 13

This weekend was the party for my niece's 1st birthday. Of course, a lot of family was in town and it was great to see everyone. The old niece enjoyed all the attention and of course all the gifts as well :-) It was fun seeing her, and she's always a blast! Happy Birthday Kailyn!

As Sunday began, it was becoming apparent a run wasn't going to happen before church... so, we waited until afterwards. I wished I would've made myself go earlier :-/ By the time we got around to making the run it was 90+ degrees outside... yuck! Since we were doing our first 2 mile run today it was a new route. Things were going well up until about a mile and a quarter. Angela fell back a bit, and then my knee started burning some. We both dropped to a walk for a short bit and then picked it back up (knee was fine after the walk, thank goodness!) All in all we dropped to a walk 3 times, each time for about an 1/8th of a mile. The end result was just shy of 22 min for the 2 miles... off of my goal of a 10min mile, but it didn't surprise me. Just have to keep at it... smartly of course :-)

Oh wow... just looked at the schedule... no more 1.0 mile runs. Huh... :-/

Dinner & 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 11

Last night Angela & I went out to dinner with Adrian & his wife Jenny. Adrian is an engineer that works in the same group as Angela and they had been talking about the 4 of us getting together for dinner for a while... it finally happened last night. We had a wonderful time! Thanks guys, and hope to do it again soon.

Today we're off, but I had to get up to get the trash out before the guys came to pick it up... they come early in our neighborhood! I let Angela sleep in... heck, I wasn't in any hurry to go running, so why not ;-) I made breakfast, and after an hour or so we decided to finally head out. It was a good run... I liked the pace and felt good today... probably the best I've felt so far. Hopefully I can keep that going because the runs only get longer from here. I was happy I was able to keep a pace right around a 10min mile.

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 10

No runnung today. It was thundering, lightning & raining outside this morning. So we'll plan on doing today's 1.5mi run tomorrow instead of the planned 1 miler.

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 8

Today was a reality check... It was "only" a mile, but it hurt. I was breathing hard in the first qtr mile, so I tried slowing down my pace. It helped but it was still a tough day. Angela didn't join me this morning... and rightfully so. She had her first soccer game of the fall season last night so she got her running in last night ;-)

Date Night & 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 6

Last night Angela & I decided to just stay in, grill on the patio, and relax... It was a wonderful night! This was the first weekend we'd been home in a while and we took full advantage of it. We were joking about how lazy we looked... it was awesome!

Sunday we awoke to another training day... we tried to squeeze the run in before church... I say tried, because I wasn't exactly feeling up to a run this morning (nothing to do with last night ;-) I finally decided it was time to just do it so we went just in time. I told Angela before we started not to expect me to maintain the same pace we did last time since we're doing 1.5miles today... I wanted to run the whole way, and I felt like I barely made it last time. So, after we set off, I noticed Angela was breathing a bit harder than last time. Didn't think much of it (forgot about the fact she gave blood only a little over a day before!)... then I noticed she wasn't pulling away from me like she has every other time. About a mile into it, she slowed to a walk... I wanted to... I REALLY did, but I didn't (we agreed when we started this not to hold each other up which is why I've gotten used to falling behind). I felt like I was running a slower pace than the last time, but I stuck with it. Angela picked it back up as well. I had these visions she was re-energized and was going to pass me (wouldn't surprise me at all!) Anyway, when all was said and done, I finished in 14min, 20 sec... What? I had to check my watcha again... yep, 14min 20 sec. Oh wow! I told her to expect a slower pace, and instead I actually set a quicker pace on a longer run -- a little over a 9 and a half minute mile... whoops! My bad :-) Now I don't expect that every time -- heck... probably never happen again, but I can definitely say the best part about it is it's encouraging...

Half-Marathon Training - Day 4

I could tell immediately Angela set a quicker pace today... I'm getting used to seeing her in front of me :-) She didn't quite finish as stong as the previous days, but she forced me to pick up my pace noticeably. The result was almost a 10min mile. Nice!

Half-Marathon Training - Day 3

Ok... took 3 days, but yeah, I'm hijacking this blog... Angela's doing the Facebook thing so I don't think she'll mind.

This morning was our second 1.0mi run. Didn't get a time though... apparently the GPS shut off sometime in route, so who knows. I know it was quicker though, even if only by a little. I was sore before hand so wasn't sure if it would be. Turned out OK I think.

Half Marathon Anyone?

So I'm thinking I may hijack this blog from Angela ;-)

Today we started our half marathon training. Yeah, we (maybe just me, we'll see since Angela will be involved with soccer) decided to do the Fayetteville half marathon in December. Should be fun... will definitely be a challenge especially since the longest distance I've run was a 10K.

Anyway we both ran a mile this morning in a blistering 11:00 minutes... Let the training Begin!

Mark

HTPC Build

A few people have asked about the PC build so I thought I’d post about it. This post contains a lot of info so if you’d like to cut to the chase, scroll down to the last 6 or 7 pictures.

Ok, here goes... We’re not the cable TV types... I know from experience if I have cable/dish, I’d watch it. And I don’t need any reasons to watch more TV. So, we still use a antenna. My experience is it’s a better picture than cable anyway. The HD on the plasma is awesome! One thing that’s always bugged me though was not being able to get the HD digital equivalent of a VCR... Sure, there are DVR’s available, but they all come with monthly fees that’s more or less for nothing more than a TV guide. So, I’m the type of person to build my own. And while I’m at it, I want to be able to play games on it, load my flight sim on it, and surf the web, all with full surround sound coming through the stereo. Sounded like a fun project ;-)

My requirements were simple:

• Able to record TV in full HD quality
• Ability to play some decent PC games
• Ability to handle my flight sim, X-Plane (can’t wait to see that thing on the big flat screen!)
• Internet connection to explore the internet TV thing
• And since the PC will be in the living room, it has to be quiet

Now, for anyone that knows a bit about gaming PCs, that last one is the kicker! In order to play decent games, you need a good video card... and all good video cards now-a-days come with really loud fans on them. Why didn’t we just buy a store bought PC especially since they don’t really suffer from this? Well, store bought PCs can’t really handle decent games ;-) Plus I don’t like all that additional crap that’s loaded on them... I like efficiency.

So after a decent amount of research here’s what I came up with (see picture below the list):

• Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition (not shown)
• Case: Lian Li PC-C33B Home Theater PC (HTPC) case. This is the big black box in the center of the back of the picture (the top cover is removed). HTPC’s are made to look like a piece of stereo equipment to “blend in” with the remainder of your gear
• Power Supply: SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W (black & gold box at left-rear). Probably overkill on the amount of power, but this is a very efficient power supply, and the fan only runs when needed so it’s quiet
• Motherboard: Intel DP55KG Extreme Series (black, flat box on right)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-750, Quad Core (front and center)
• Hard Drives (2): Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (plastic wrapped items at front left). 500GB for the operating system; 1TB for storage. Storage is cheap these days!
• Video Card: Gigabyte GV-R4890C-1GB Radeon HD 4890 (big blue box right, front)
• TV Tuner Card: Hauppage WinTV-HVR-2250 with remote (white and red box in the center)
• Optical Disk Drive: LG BH10LS30 Blu-Ray Disc Re-Writer (white “Super Multi Blue” box on left). This will read and write just about every type of disk up through Blu-Rays!
• Memory: Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800, 4GB total (barely visible at the top right of pic)
• The blue, black & brown box at the top left of the picture is a heat-sink for the Processor (Noctua NH-U9B SE 2). The stock fans used to cool processors can be pretty noisy so I sprung for a more quiet aftermarket solution

Lets get started!

To my surprise the PC case was much longer depth-wise than I was expecting. I researched a lot, but overlooked this detail. It soon became apparent I would need to cut a hole in the rear of our cabinet in order to clear the cables that would be sticking out the back of the PC. So, I made a template of the back of the PC out of cardboard and used that to mark the hole.


The fans you see were installed a while back to pull the heat from the enclosed cabinet generated by our stereo receiver. Before the fans were installed temps inside would get to almost 120 degrees! After the fans temps maxed ~80. The fans are 120mm Noctua NF-S12B ULNs and only turn 700 RPMs so they’re almost inaudible. They can only be heard when everything in the house is off including the central heat and air!

Here’s a shot of the hole with the PC case temporarily put in place showing how close the rear of it is to the back of the cabinet. It’s actually so close I had to make some notches to clear the top cover screws. I could’ve just cut the upper edge a little higher, but that left little margin between making the hole big enough to clear everything and keeping it smaller than the PC so it’s not visible from the front.


I wanted a wired internet connection for this setup so I needed to run a cable for it. In the room where our router is I replaced the single jack wall-plate with a dual-jack wall-plate. One jack is the input to the DSL modem (what already existed); the other jack (the new one) will be used to connect an output from the router that will go the HTPC. This jack is on the opposite side of the wall I plan on putting the new wall-plate the HTPC will connect to so that’s pretty convenient.

Here are a couple shots of the hole I cut and the new network jack installed for the HTPC. The dual jack wall-plate is on the opposite side of the wall you see here. The jack in the photo is connected to the dual jack wall-plate by a short 2-ft Cat5 network cable in the wall.



After all that prep-work it was time to start building the PC!

1st thing I did was remove the hard drive cage and install the 2 hard drives (500GB on top; 1TB on bottom). The hard drive cage slides in place and attaches by the single thumb screw you see at the bottom.


Next I removed the optical drive cage and installed the Blu-Ray disc writer.


Next in was the power supply. The better power supplies now-a-days, I found out, are modular units (notice no cables sticking out the opposite end). This power supply came with a pouch full of different cable arrangements. You only attach those cables you need minimizing the number of cables in your case. This is a sweet setup!


Next up was the motherboard, although it shouldn’t have been. The processor heat-sink has a base on it that attaches to the underside of the motherboard. I was unaware of this at the time.


Here’s a shot of the i5-750 processor still in its plastic protective cover. It still amazes me how small these things are.


To install the processor the “load plate” needs to be opened and the protective cover removed to reveal the socket on the motherboard.


With the processor in place on the socket, the load plate is lowered and locked into position.


Next in went the video card.


So here’s where I realized I needed to pull the motherboard back out to install the base of the processor heat-sink. Here’s a shot of the bottom of the motherboard with the heat-sink base installed.


And the motherboard reinstalled in the case with the processor heat-sink retention mechanisms attached to the base (the curved metal pieces on either side of the processor)


Now I could reinstall the components I had to remove and move on…

Next in went the processor heat-sink. A very small dab of thermal paste gets applied between the processor and the heat-sink to ensure heat transfer from the processor to the heat-sink. To dissipate heat the heat-sink contains 8 heat pipes to transfer heat generated by the processor to a stack of multiple thin plates. Transferring air between these plates to remove the heat will be the job of 2 fans that will eventually be attached to either side of this thing.


After installing the fans on the processor heat-sink (one is visible in the pic below, the other is on the opposite side of the heat-sink) I became worried the memory modules may not fit. They just barely clear the heat-sink fan. Unfortunately it does not appear I will be able to use the remaining memory slots with this fan in place should I decide to add memory in the future.


The TV Tuner card will reside in the last expansion slot so it’s placement at this time is not crucial. I went ahead and got started on installing the mess of cables. It always looks so clean until you start installing cables!


The TV Tuner card was not necessary for first boot so I’ll hold off on installing it until later. My experience has shown its best to start with the bare minimum and work up from there.

I was now ready for the first boot of the system. I went back over the cable connections to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I left the storage hard drive disconnected since its not necessary at this time, and left the network cable disconnected for the same reason. All systems go… press the button!

Boot up went well, although one thing became pretty apparent… the video card fan was a little loud for my taste (more about that later). After getting some fan issues worked out in the BIOS, and some LED issues due to mis-labeled cables worked out, it was time to install Windows 7. In went the CD and I must say this was the easiest operating system to load that I’ve experienced (I only have XP & ME to compare it to though)


After Windows was installed I connected the network cable and let Windows update do its thing. With Windows fully updated I attached the second hard drive, and then finally installed the TV Tuner card. This card has two coaxial inputs (one for TV signals, and one for FM Stereo). Even though the card only has a single TV signal connector it contains two TV tuners, each capable of decoding either analog or digital TV including full HD. This is the same type of tuner typical flat screen TV’s come with, except there are two on this card. The card also comes with a remote and a separate piece that installs in an adjacent slot for additional external cable hookups such as S-video and component connections. I don’t think I’ll need it, but I’m installing anyway so I won’t have to do it later should I need it. (sorry… no pic of my install, but here’s one from their website)


Ok, back to that video card sound issue I mentioned… Angela & I both noticed the PC was a little louder than we liked. The video card I chose was a compromise between a well performing gaming card, and something that would be quiet. The Gigabyte card advertised a Zalman heat-sink and cooler that was targeted at the HTPC market… Zalman is known for quiet cooling solutions so this card seemed ideal. Unfortunately for our tastes it wasn’t! The card performs well, it’s just too loud.

My first attempt at a solution was to remove the fan from the card and build a duct to channel air from one of the internal case fans over the video card heat-sink. Here’s a shot of the duct I built with the side panel removed so you can see the relation to the heat-sink. The fan is the cream-colored piece on the right. The idea was to channel the air from this 140mm fan down to a narrow area just big enough to fit the heat-sink. This hopefully would provide adequate air-flow to keep the card cool.


After completing the duct and firing the PC back up, it was apparent our quietness goal had been met but the temperature monitoring program showed the card was not being kept cool enough (this is a HOT running card!)… ugh! Another solution was needed.

I finally settled on an Artic Cooling Twin Turbo Pro aftermarket VGA cooler (picture from their website below). All I can say is this thing ROCKS. Even though it’s got 2 fans, they’re way-bigger than the single fan I removed. 2 fans, each bigger than the single fan I removed, easily move more air while turning much less RPMs resulting in much quieter operation. Now that I’ve got it dialed in, GPU temperatures are no longer an issue!


Satisfied with the setup of the PC it was time to reinstall all the home theater components. Pictured below are, from top to bottom, a Pioneer VSX-1019AH-k Audio/Video Multi-Channel Receiver (the orange thing sticking out the front is a 32GB USB drive that stores all of our music on it. Although we technically don’t need this any longer since we can store all of our music on the HTPC, we’re keeping it so the stereo may be used independently of the PC if desired), a Panasonic DMP-BD30 Blu-Ray Disk Player (this was purchased a while back due to it’s linking capabilities with our Panasonic flat-screen plasma), and finally the HTPC.


I wired each of the components above along with the TV to operate either independently, or all together. This means the TV may be turned on by itself without the stereo or HTPC. The stereo may be turned on by itself without the TV or HTPC. TV and/or FM signals may be recorded on the HTPC without ever having to turn on the stereo or TV. Or everything may be used together.

So, what will the new HTPC do? Although I’m still exploring, here are the basics…

1st and foremost, we can record TV in full HD quality. I purchased Windows 7 for the new & improved Media Center. Using the remote that came with the TV Tuner card, I can control what’s on TV, set up shows to record, pull up a TV schedule (provided by Microsoft as part of the Windows 7 package. It uses your internet connection, but unlike cable companies, it’s free), have access to “internet TV” (provided by Microsoft I believe), etc...


Here’s a shot showing the Media Center Menu pulled up while PGA golf is playing on the TV.


Since watching TV is simply an application running, other applications may be opened simultaneously. Want to look something up on the internet while watching TV without having to fire up the laptop? No problem!


One of my other requirements was to be able to play games on this PC. Here’s a shot of Halo 2


And my flight sim? These pictures don’t do it justice… I am quite pleased with the results. Even the reflections in the water look real!



So there you have it. It turned out to be more of a project than I expected, but it was still worth it!