A Mickey Mouse Umbrella World

My good friends Stan and Diane wrote on their facebook page “[we] think you’ll never do anything if you wait for a good forecast.”  I know that they were really just talking about the weather recently but it really struck a cord with me.  It made me think of Exodus when the spies were sent across the Jordan.   When they came back ten spoke of giants and armies to great to conquer.  Joshua didn’t.  He spoke of a land of milk and honey which God would provide only if they trusted in Him.  They didn’t listen to Josh and spent the next 40 years dying in the desert.  Once they stopped worrying about the forecast and trusted in God they actually accomplish anything.

It also reminded me of Disney World.  I know, it doesn’t take much to remind me of Disney.  Disney doesn’t stop for rain.  Its the happiest place on earth rain or shine.  The rides keep running, the parades keep parading.  Only lightning will slow them down, and even that only closes the water parks.  Disney knows that the situation is what you make of it.  You can either sit in the muck or open your Mickey Mouse Umbrella and find joy in your life.  Besides like the line from the movie “The Crow”, “It can’t rain all the time.”

Thankful

Good news.  I have a position with Life Technologies.  It is a 50% research and 50% production position in their media formulation group.  This is my first position in industry.  What is very exciting to me is the opportunities to grow with LT.  It seems that once in the door the choice is mine as far as advancement and I can even move into different fields if this one becomes stagnant for me.  Best of all, Stacey will be able to keep her position at MCC. I may even get to adjunct as well once I fully understand the job.  Either way, it looks as though my career is finally starting.

Our bible study with Becky, Andrew and Lidia is going well.  We have been studying the Chapel’s Doubts series.  I am trying to balance pushing the entire group to really critically think about our faith while not annoying people with the what if questions as well.  We need to plan a service meeting soon.

Mom and Dad are coming for this weekend.  I hope the rain we have been suffering will go away so that they can enjoy their visit with AJ.

Thankful for spam blocker

So I guess Word press is getting slammed with spam, at least my blog has been recently.  Lots of advertisements for nude pics of people.  But that is why we put these filters on our accounts.  I am not sure what the spammer gets in return for all of this.  There must be some sort of monitary value in spamming, otherwise why would they do it.  Perhaps they are just trying to get at our information so that they can steal identities.  Either way, I always delete the spam in try to keep the door closed.

Not as much running this week for two reasons.  Little to no time away from the lab and lots of rain. But I still got in a few runs.  If I get out tomorrow I will have 9 miles for the week, if not it will only be six.  I really want to get in more then 30 miles this month, I don’t think I will make it to 45 like I wanted because of the week off for the blister, but I do want more then 30.  Perhaps this last 10 days will be very productive.  We shall see.

12.2 mile week

After a week off for my toe, I didn’t know how this week was going to go.  Apparently the extra rest was good for me because I reached 12 miles total.  Thats a new high for this year.  I know all of you 50 mile a weekers probably scoff in my general direction but hey, I am proud of it.  I was planning a 5K for flight 3407 on Saturday.  Well, you should always register early, otherwise you get to sit out the run.  I still gave my entry fee as a donation since it was for a good cause.

Speaking of good causes.  You may have noticed the link to a blog on my page called prince liam the brave.  This is a great little kid who has a horrible cancer.  He has been fighting it for three years now.  A fellow runner from NYC, Marci, has been running for Fred’s team in Liam’s name.  Fred’s team raises money for the Aubrey Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centerin NYC.  Sadly Liam’s cancer has returned again and chemo starts on monday for this sweet little boy.  Here’s the deal.  I need you all to find 5, 10 maybe 20 bucks to donate for Marci to run the NYC marathon in Liam’s name again.  Here is her link to donate:

https://fredsteam.mskcc.org/fundraising/Controller?action=userHome&user_id=35611&event_id=128

Please, Please, Please give to this cause.  We need to support the research. It directly helps kids like Liam.  This is why we run.

Monday: 3.2 miles with Sean 37 min

Tuesday: 3 miles 30 min

Thursday: 3 miles in 27:30

Sunday: 3 miles with Stacey in 38

Running note

This is just to say I took this week off from running.  I had a bad blister that wasn’t healing correctly because of its location on my foot.  so I wanted to get that squared away before it resulted in something worse.  Technically, my week starts on monday, so I could get in some miles tomorrow and probably will.

Good week to miss anyway.  I had a job interview to prepare for and lots of work around the house as well.  I did get some exercise walking the lawnmower around the yard.  I also did a lot of walking today with AJ which was fun.  We hit a bunch of yard sales.

May running review and how I became a Yankees fan

I am really happy about May.  I ran for 36 miles this month.  That’s 16 miles above my average last year.  I made it out at least three times a week.  I had three 5 mile long runs.  So there is improvement.  More over, I ran a sub 16 minute two miles and  a sub 8 minute mile sever times.  Best part, no pain.  Other than normal pain from working at a lab bench all day I am in good shape.  I averaged a 2.8 miles per run.  So here are Junes goals.  Long runs of 7 miles.  Increase to at least 45 miles for the month and a 15:30 two mile run.

Sort of funny.  Last week I forgot to bring a  shirt to the gym for work.  So I stopped at the only open store, a Wegman’s grocery story.  They have a small NY team shirt area.  Sadly, the only shirt in my size was a Yankees jersey.  $40.  I don’t really follow baseball, but when I do, I tend to pay attention to the Yankees and Red Sox.  I am not a fan, although I do  like driving the fans of those teams crazy.   Yankees are fun because they have a winning record, fans seem to have a toughness about them, the players great.  Boston is cool because they seem laid back have a winning record, but I can’t stand the fans sometimes.  Boston Fan no matter the sport tend to be insufferable.  They are either whining, or over compensating or act like everyone should bow down to their city because of a couple of world series and a few super bowls.  The truth is, as franchises go, the Steelers and Yankees have had more success over several era’s of their respective sports as compared to the Pats and Sox’s.  Still, like I said,  I don’t really have a side.  If someone gave me a Red Sox jersey I would have no problem wearing it at Yankee Stadium, same goes for the jersey I just purchased at Fenway.  Back to the point.  I am walking into the building when I start getting cursed out by a Sox fan.  My mom was called names, my dad’s intelligence was questioned.  I mean this guy was genuinely angry that I was wearing this shirt that I had no choice in buying.  I merely commented that the gentlemen should take stock of his priorities.  I mean dude, its just a shirt.  But all day long it was like that.  One Sox fan after another talking trash just because of a blue jersey.  I am curious if the same thing would occur with a Sox shirt.  I may be forced to pick one up just to do the experiment.  Perhaps then sew them together to see if there is a synergistic effect.

Spirit of the Marathon

I just recently watched the movie Spirit of the Marathon on my netflix online.  It followed six runners with different capabilities as they prepared for the 2005 marathon.  There was a person striving for a BQ, another was an older runner running with his daughter on her first marathon, there was three other first time marathoners as well.  Spliced through the movie was vintage films of some of the greatest races as well as a look at Deena Kastor and Daniel Njenga’s training for the race.  The movie of course lead to the 2005 running of the Chicago marathon.  It was heart breaking to watch Deena gut out a victory by holding off Constantina Tomescu-Dita because you saw what the 2008 Olympics could have been if Deena had not broken her foot at mile 5.  This movie was a great motivator I suggest it for anyone thinking of attempting the distance of 26.2 miles.

 

programmed for 2 miles

The most comfortable distance to me is 2 miles.  That was the distance for the physical training test in the Army.  The fastest I ever ran 2 miles was about 14:30 however, during a PT test I normally was around 15:30.  When I was 18 my qualifying time was 15:49, so I liked 15:30 for that 20 second cushion.  As I got older the time changed to 15:54 to final, 16:34 when I got out, but I maintained about 15:30 just the same.

After the Army, I just ran it in 20 minutes.  It was comfortable and fun.  But today I did it in 16:00  with the first mile slower than the second.  It felt great.  Anyway, I like two miles because I can consistently fit it into my busy life, it leaves me feeling as though I got a descent work out, it leaves time for other exercises, and I can mix it up.  One day two miles fast, another I can break it up into sprints or hill work, another it can be a slow maintenance run.  1 mile you have to run to fast for it to feel like you got a good work out in.  3 miles + requires a large time commitment.  It’s kind of like the Goldilocks story, two miles is just right.

My thoughts…

I have kept quiet about most topics for a while now.  I have been focusing on my research, thesis and running so much that I have not been keeping up with current events.  So here are some thoughts:

Pop – culture: OK the whole Miss USA California deal. The girl was wrong for lying on her application about semi-naked pics.  The website was wrong for releasing said picks because of the girl’s view on gay marriage, it does nothing to forward the conversation about the topic.  It was wrong for Miss USA to care about the semi naked pics because the first thing the contest does is have the girls dance on stage in bikini’s.  Good on Trump for calling BS BS and moving on.

Politics: I like this credit card bill’s intention I don’t think it is written well and will not be effective.   We also need to be sure banks have some sort of way to prohibit people from chronically being late with payments.  Still good idea poor execution.  Which is becoming the MO for this administration, very similar to the last one.  Why can’t we get people with good ideas and good execution of said ideas.  Oh and a little over watch on all this debt they are making for my son would be nice too.  Way to go Joe for letting everyone know about the secret bunker, remind us not to let you in on any important secrets. Moron.

Swine Flu: It’s just the flu.  Take Motrin, stay home and stop freaking everyone out.  Seriously, more people die in their bathtubs yet we don’t see special CDC reports on the shower pandemic.

Traffic: Really doesn’t anyone know how to use a turning lane.  Pull ALL the way into the turning lane. STOP.  when clear TURN.  Not hard people.

Star Trek: Best action Star Trek.  Good story line but not as good as STII and STIII.  Still think STVI is the best in the series with this one a close second.  Only character I felt was forced was Bones.

Wolverine: OK, not as good as previous X-men.  I felt as though it was a set up for spin offs rather than a stand alone movie about wolverine’s origins.  Prof X at the end was fitting, Deadpool’s head was dumb.  Gambit’s character was wasted.

My new NB suck.

Mornings shouldn’t be 32 degrees on May 19th.

I know this is cryptic.  Sad about someone who recently resigned from his position.  I think it the best thing for the place he resigned from and for him.  I think he was blamed for more than his share, I think he needs to accept the blame for more than he does.  I think when both are evaluated in the future, he has more potential to grow, change and succeed.  The place will probably be the same old same old or no longer existing with the last being the most likely.

ok. later.

Sustained pressure leads to sustainable increase

When I played video games as a kid and even today I noticed that I could get a score consistently, lets say 1000 pts.  but every now and then I would get a spike of 7000 pts.  As I played longer, I would be able to sustain 7000 pts. and with occasional jumps to 20000 pts.  As long as I sustained a certain amount of pressure on the game so to speak, I would get these break throughs.  The same was true when playing a friend of mine in basketball.  I couldn’t outplay him, he was taller, could dunk and was clutch from three points out.  But if I sustained constant pressure on him for the whole game, by the end we were evenly matched, basically I wore him down to my level.

With my running I am seeing a similar trend, if I sustain three mile runs through out the week, I can complete 5 miles comfortably.  However, if I have a week where I only have time for 1 or 2 mile runs, that 5 miles hurts so bad I feel like I was beaten with a mallet.  Sustained pressure leads to sustainable increases in my long run.  Simply, I am conditioning my body, mastering to do what I want it to do.  Now, this may seem like a no shit Sherlock statement, and you would be right.  Still I am saying it because my last 5 mile run hurt, a lot, with back pain and leg pain.  The 1.7 I did last Monday was murder because of that 5 mile run.  But today my 3 mile run felt great.   Sure I am sore but it will be better by tomorrow. 

Being home with AJ yesterday ment no swimming, so I did a biggest loser strenght DVD instead.  That is a seriously good work out.  Although the stretching sections are pretty week.  Bob leads you through it wich is cool.  By the way, this season had a half marathon and a full marathon as part of the program.  Previously 300+ men and 250+ women completed both.  Nothing I mean nothing is impossible.