Oct. 14-22: Running in Two States & Other Rambling

I'm still traveling a lot. Last week, I was in New York for an information sharing meeting between my employer and a large hardware/software platform vendor. I learned a lot and the conversations were extremely interesting. A lot of SaaS (Software as a Service), cloud computing, and collaboration stuff. These are the buzzwords of the day. But, I have to say it is amazing to watch these types of changes come along. Simple ideas really can drive big impacts to the way we think about solving problems.

I am voting for the Obama ticket, but I have to say I think Palin is getting an unfair and undue shake by the press and apparently her own party. The whole "how much she spent on clothes" brouhaha just smells like sexism and pettiness to me. I actually like listening to her talk and find that she carries me along as she does. I believe you is a tough cookie with strong leadership capabilities. I just find it interesting to see how folks polarize themselves.

Side note: I am no longer logging podcasts listening activity in Google Spreadsheets. It was just not a value adding activity. Logging it here is plenty.

I got JayBird's bluetooth stereo headset for my birthday. So far, I like them in general. I hate wired headsets. I am finding that getting a good feeling fit is difficult and that the controls are difficult to trigger while running. But, these are minor nuisances when compare to a wired headset and I suspect I will learn how to mitigate these issues with complete satisfaction. Now, let's hope for stability. I replaced the Motorola s9 which were crap. I must have asked Motorola to honor the warranty with a replacement for 4-5 times. The warranty ran out and the last headset died like the rest. The buttons gradually stopped working and the volume buttons would start just spontaneously driving the volumn up or down complete with the beep indicating the volume button was pressed.

Crap

What I listened to on podcasts:

• Daily Sourcecode
  • DSC 798
  • DSC 799
    
• Fitness Rocks
  • 116: Lifestyle Habits and Mortality
  117: Stress and Your Health
• Accident Hash
• Phedippidations
• Fdip156: Cheers from a Little Blue Bubble
• Fdip157: The Third Annual World Wide Festival of Races
  
• This American Life
• #364: Going Big
• #365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy
  CDO's were the key instrument in the sub-prime crisis. Now, CDS's offer their own set of complicated influences in our struggling economy. The "frightening" label is appropriate. I sure hope the wise guys trying to manage this get it together. It is extremely hard not to panic a bit.

Data

October 22, 2008: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	8.17 Miles
Time:	1:14:01
Heart Rate:	145
Pace:	9:03
Weather:	Clear Temperature-56° Humidity-72%

October 21, 2008: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	5 Miles
Time:	48:19
Heart Rate:	137
Pace:	9:39
Weather:	Clear Temperature-47° Humidity-83%

October 19, 2008: Birmingham, AL Brownell-Jemison Park Running
Distance:	11.07 Miles
Time:	1:37:31
Heart Rate:	150
Pace:	8:48
Weather:	Clear Temperature-44° Humidity-82%
Route

October 18, 2008: Birmingham, AL Oak Mountain State Park Cycling I got some great cool weather cycling gear for my birthday and I wore it today. I needed it!
Distance:	23.86 Miles
Time:	1:25:06
Heart Rate:	132
Speed:	16.82
Weather:	Clear Temperature-45° Humidity-90%
Route

October 17, 2008: Palisades, NY Tallman Mountain State Park/Piermont Running
Distance:	7 Miles
Time:	1:05:36
Heart Rate:	140
Pace:	9:15
Weather:	Clear Temperature-43° Humidity-80%
Route

October 15, 2008: Palisades, NY Tallman Mountain State Park/Piermont Running One of my favorite running routes. Running through this forest when the leaves are changing is just beautiful.
Distance:	8 Miles
Time:	1:15:42
Heart Rate:	140
Pace:	9:27
Weather:	Scattered clouds Temperature-56° Humidity-80%
Route

October 14, 2008: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	5 Miles
Time:	45:45
Heart Rate:	145
Pace:	9:09
Weather:	Clear Temperature-66° Humidity-78%

Apr 16-19, 2008: 4 Runs in AL: 3, 6, 3, & 9.3 (Statue-to-Statue Race)

I kept up with the Daily Source Code, caught up with This American Life, and Phedippidations. Steve, host of Phedippidations, is about to run Boston. So, that last few shows have been about the course, Steve's preparation, and some historical stuff about Boston. Good shows.

Gear Rants:

• The Motorola S9 bluetooth headset has lot its ability to manage volume again. So, I will be sending it back for the fourth time.
• iTunes continues to sporadically delete the physical file for a podcast. This forces me to download the file manually and tell iTunes where the file is located so I can manage this in iTunes. I first logged this in the Apple discussion forum on March 25, 2007 (Yes, over a year ago!). Apple archived this discussion, so I added it again (After a Year, Podcasts file STILL disappear from harddrive during sync). I would have to say that as a podcatcher, iTunes f**king sucks! I still have ghost listings of podcasts that are not on my harddrive, not in my iTunes library, not in my iTunes Podcasts library, but show up in iTunes playlists (Stranded Podcasts and Playlists That Have "Non-Existent" Podcast episodes on Apple's Discussion Forum).
• Finally, the Garmin 305's battery was died during my 3 mile run on April 16. I don't know if I accidentally left it on, its button got pushed in the special carry case I bought, or what. I am assuming user error at this point.
  

My running is going well. I just finished the Statue-to-Statue run yesterday and look at my history:

• 2008 - 1:17:39
  
• 2007 - 1:20:48
• 2006 - 1:25:55

I sure can't complain about that. This is a very tough run with some serious hills.

A friend of mine sent me this humorous picture since I am reading The God Delusion:

What a hoot!

Data

04/19/2008: Statue-to-Statue Run, Birmingham, AL

	Distance:	9.38 Miles
	Time:	1:17:39
	Heart Rate:	165
	Pace:	8:16
	Weather:	Few clouds Temperature-55° Humidity-77%
	Route

04/18/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	27:28
Heart Rate:	157
Pace:	9:09
Weather:	Clear Temperature-52° Humidity-83%

04/17/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	6 Miles
Time:	54:54
Heart Rate:	156
Pace:	9:09
Weather:	Clear Temperature-47° Humidity-80%

04/16/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	27:36
Pace:	9:12
Weather:	Clear Temperature-39° Humidity-82%

11/04/07: 13 Mile Run: Jemison-Montclair Loop, Birmingham, AL

Judy made it out again. She ran about 7 miles since she turned around at Euclid and Hagood. I didn't take the iPod as its battery was dead. I didn't use the iPhone because I forgot to put the headphone adapter in the pouch. Damn technology bit me at every turn. Despite all that, I enjoyed the run and the weather was perfect. Judy landed a new job. So, new boyfriend, new job; she is doing well and I am so pleased for her.

My youngest son celebrated his birthday with his friends on Saturday at the McWane Center here in town. We also went to Disney on Ice for the Finding Nemo show. What a busy and fun day he had.

Data

Distance:	13 Miles
Time:	2:01:57
Heart Rate:	146
Pace:	9:22
Weather:	Clear Temperature-44° Humidity-89%
Route	Brownell-Montclair Loop I didn't circle the parking lot

10/28/07: 9 Mile Run: Brownell-Shades Creek

I met Judy at 7:30 am; yes, she's back. I used the new Nike Triax C8 heart rate monitor and I am extremely pleased. I especially like the fact that it can remember more than 1 run and that I have a custom display while running. I had been at Judy's house the evening before when she noted that if we could start at 7:30 instead of 6:30, she could probably make it. She did. She ran with the iPod Nano including the pedometer thingy. She liked it. Interestingly, I thought it measured the distance short. But, if not this was a great run! I wasn't wearing the GPS, so I don't have any disconfirming (is that a word?) evidence. Next week, 13 Miles.

Data

Distance:	9 Miles
Time:	1:17:05
Heart Rate:	151
Pace:	8:33
Weather:	Clear Temperature-48° Humidity-93%
Route:	The usual 8.5 Miler + .5 Mile add on

10/27/07: 3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

I put the iPod on shuffle to let the music run and headed out. I had to estimate the time and lost the heart rate as the Polar heart rate monitor I have been using for several years totally reset all of its values when I hit the stop button. OK, this was its last straw. It has been replaced thanks to a gift card from 6 of my friends for Academy Sports. I now have a Nike, Triax C8. I will find out today if I like it. I do like that I was able to create a custom, "My View" for the watch when I am running. Data Distance: 3 Miles Time: 27:30 (estimate) Pace: 9:09 Weather: Clear Temperature-44° Humidity-89%

10/26/07: 5 Mile Run: Neighborhood

I listened to Phedippidations during this morning run. Steve, host of Phedippidations, just broke his marathon PR with a time of 4:12:55. That is a great accomplishment. I hope I see similar results at the Mercedes in February. I had to estimate the time and lost the heart rate as the Polar heart rate monitor I have been using for several years did not respect my push of the stop button.

Data

Distance:	5 Miles
Time:	47:30 (estimate)
Pace:	9:30
Weather:	Overcast Temperature-52° Humidity-88%

06/22/07: 3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

I put the iPod on shuffle, turned on the bluetooth and the headset, and off I went on this early morning run. The new gear is still performing well. The new quest ins to find a case that really fits well since the iPod with bluetooth is bigger than cases I currently have that are for iPod only. I bought a case that is designed for a CD player and it is really too big. I just ordeded two things from Amphipod (Micropak Explorer^TM and Airflow MP^TM that I hope will work.

Data

Distance:	3
Time:	25:30
Heart Rate:	156
Pace:	8:30
Weather:	Clear Temperature-71° Humidity-57%