If you're a fan of The Biggest Loser or Top Chef you'll be dismayed to learn that I have posted sections for each of those shows at Factplace.com  At those sites I'll post opinions, show notes, comments, links to other content that I find interesting or relevent.  Click the links to read...

• The Biggest Loser
• Top Chef

Hopefully you'll find the sites interesting too.

-B-

O.K., so I made it to Monday.  Did both runs (but haven't told Brian yet).

• Saturday's 10-miler went great.  We set a very easy pace and just cruised it.  Cate did a nice job of keeping me reigned in a little, we had lovely weather and by the end of the run we were only 5 seconds per mile off our target pace (we were slightly fast).
• Sunday's Half-Marathon went o.k.  Believe it or not I was too fast - I had hoped to use that run to gauge myself for Phoenix, but I didn't do a very good job of holding myself back at Marathon pace.  I should have been doing 12:15s and instead I kept doing 11:30s (or faster).  I felt strong and could have easily run faster...but that wasn't the point of that run.  So...I probably didn't learn what I needed to.  I'll just chalk it up to a good catered training run.  With a t-shirt.

Aside from that the weekend was fairly uneventful.  Did get a chance to try out my new trick for stowing my keys when I don't want to carry them with me and it worked o.k.  Let me explain...

The Key To it All

When I go to do ocean swim workouts I never quite know what to do with my keys.  It's fine if I have a friend with me who is going to hang out on the beach; work on her tan or whatever.  I can leave my keys with her.  But if I'm by myself or with a friend who also intends to swim what do I do with the keys?  Traditionally I've hidden them in a shoe, or in a zip top baggie buried in the sand under the shoes.  But I never liked that.  I was always afraid somebody would find them, take them and steal from (or steal!) my car while I was swimming. 

So...new solution: I went to Home Depot and for $29 bought a lock box.  I keep it in the back of the truck and when I need to use it just attach to one of the tow hooks on the front.  Those hooks are built into the frame of the truck so they're not going anywhere.  The lock box is heavy steel with a combination lock.  I can lock my keys in the box and go off to do whatever I want.  Nobody is going to get that box off there (at least not easily) or get it open.

Only downside...the inside of the box is actually quite a bit smaller than I thought it was.  My car keys are sort of big; not like a house key which is slender.  So I have to carefully place the keys in there in order to get the lock box to close.  But it works.  And I feel a lot better about going off to do runs or swim workouts without my keys.

Random Thoughts

• Good to see that some of the candy companies are getting away from the "Fun Size" moniker in favor of "Snack Size" which seems more appropriate.  When I want to eat chocolate there's really nothing fun about having to tear open 7 postage-stamp sized wrappers to get an ounce of chocolate.
• In February I may be attending an ABA meeting in Boston.  Boston in February?  What, they couldn't get Siberia in January?
• No, I'm not good at taking my own advice.  Thanks for asking.

Quote of the Day

"Some people are like slinkies.  Not really good for anything but they still make you smile when you push them down the stairs."

-B-

I'm feelin' ya Chuck.

-B-

• It's going to be a busy weekend.  On Saturday morning I have a 10-mile tempo run with my group.  On Sunday morning I have the Val Nolasco half-marathon.  Normally I wouldn't do that, and I'm going to have to do a little fancy talking to get Brian to not smite me but...here's my logic.
• My group's pace is quite a bit slower than my own pace.  That means that the 10-miler on Saturday should be a really easy cruise.  More of a warm-up pace run.  I shouldn't be especially fatigued or sore aftewards.
• I'm not planning to race the half-marathon, per se.  Those of you who read this blog regularly (Hi Mom!) know that my half-marathon PR was set back in August at 2:24:05.  Last year at the Val Nolasco Half-Marathon I ran a 2:41, which was my PR at the time.  This year I'm going to use the half-marathon as more of a test effort to gauge where I am for Phoenix.  I'm planning to run about a 12:20 pace which should actually should bring me in around 2:41 again which this year should not be a big effort.  That's almost a minute and a half per mile slower than my PR over the distance!  I mostly just want to feel good at that pace, and sustain it for the full 13.1 and feel, at 13.1 like I could go another 13.1 there. That will tell me that I'm on track to have a great race effort at Phoenix in January.  If I struggle to run a 2:41 at the Val Nolasco on Sunday, then that will tell me I still have a lot of work to do to be ready to race at Phoenix. 
• I'm not planning to race the Honolulu Marathon.  It's a run, yes, but basically just a catered training run for me.  So recovery isn't as big an issue.
• The Outlook book continues to sell well, and the Word book is starting to gain a little momentum.
• Had yoga this morning.  Actually checked the schedule to see if Omar was leading the class before I decided to go.  I'm not sure what it says that I've now done enough yoga to know which yoga instructors I really like and which ones I'm not as keen on.  Of course I still haven't done enough yoga to be any good at it.  Maybe in time that will happen.

The Doctor is IN

I don't know why young women ask me for love advice when I've demonstrated no particular competency in that area myself.  However...yesterday TWO of my friends, I shall call them "Lucy" and "Rhonda" asked me for advice about their love lives.  As you can probably surmise these names are remarkably similar to their real names in that both these pseudonyms and their real names include both vowels and consonants.

Both of these young ladies are in their early 20s and are, shall we say, considerably more attractive than average.  And both share the same problem...they are on the tail end of brief (well, brief to an veteran like me, an eternity to someone who graduated from high school in this decade) relationships with boys who, honestly, viewed them mostly as trophies.  Sadly one of the obstacles women (and especially those who are quite young and attractive) have in finding a good relationship with a real man is that the world is full of boys who will say the right things and strike the right poses in order to entice them.  These boys are not really interested in getting to know them as people and as women, but rather just want to get them into bed or show up in public places with these young women on their arms - impressing their friends.

Unfortunately for these young women the strapping and handsome young lad with the less-than-honorable motives who flashes the right smile and has the smooth enough lines far too often gets what he wants.  And she rarely gets what she really wants.  So...yesterday they both found themselves coming to me for advice about what to do with these boys.  Not surprisingly, the advice I gave them was roughly the same:

"Never settle for a guy who not only doesn't make you happy, but who doesn't CARE that he doesn't make you happy."

At least a guy who TRIES to make you happy, is putting in the effort.  He may not be right for you, but at least he cares enough to be concerned with what you want.  Points for that.  That's the guy you hug when you tell him it's not working out.  Unfortunately both of these young ladies are stuck with guys who view them as mostly decorative.  What they want isn't important beyond whatever minimum effort the guy has to do to coax her into going to his hangout on his arm (so his friends can see them) and then coax her into spending the night in his bed.  She's an accessory to him.  Nothing more. 

Rhonda ruefully admitted that her guy TOLD her recently that he was basically looking for a trophy.  I told her to tell him "Sorry, trophies have to be WON."  And as he clearly isn't willing to get off his duff and work for the victory she should go find somebody who actually cares about her and who wants to really earn her affections.  That's the guy who deserves to be seen with her and who deserves to wake up with her.

Good luck ladies. 

Quote of the Day

"I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate.  And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."

-Jack Handey-

-B-

It's Election Day in America.  The day when we ask the two big questions...

1. Who's the best person for the job?
2. Why aren't they running?

Those questions fresh on my mind I set off around 9:15AM this morning to go vote.  It's about 3/4 of a mile to my polling place at a nearby elementary school so I walked it.  Along the way I passed an enthusiastic group of sign-wavers supporting a local candidate.  I was hoping they won't pay me much attention - I didn't want to have to either lie to them or tell them I wasn't voting for their guy.

Made it to the polling place, after a long pause at the pet store to watch the adorable puppies playing in the window box, there was a fairly big line. (for the polling place as well as the puppies)

The line moved fairly steadily, though, within 15 minutes or so I'd been given my ballot by the lovely lady at the table who called everybody "Dear" and "Honey" with a smile.  I was directed into an empty booth and commenced electing.

Paper or Plastic?

Yes, I opted for a paper ballot for two reasons:

1. There was only a single electronic voting machine and 4-5 people in line.  There were a dozen or more booths for paper ballots and nearly half of them evidenced no feet under the curtain, indicating they were empty and available.
2. I didn't know if our voting machines offer paper receipts or not and if they don't....then I want no part of them.  See here for an article I wrote on that subject.

Very Efficient

I definitely give credit to our poll workers though. Even with a healthy crowd and a steady line they kept things moving and I was in and out in probably under 20 minutes.  Not bad at all.  Good to see a lot of kids there too - folks brought their children to see the process.

On the walk home, two or three different folks hailed me, asked if I had just come from the school and, if so, how the lines were.  "Long but moving well" I said.  They smiled and continued towards the school.

Random Thoughts

• Happy Birthday Jana!
• Maybe I shouldn't have bought candy I like for Halloween. I'm stuck with it but it's disappearing fast.  Maybe next year I'll get candy I *DON'T* like so that I can more easily just give it away.
• Got a new washing machine this week - my old one had to go when it started setting off the smoke detectors. (Yes, really)

Picture of the Day

Sunset in Tucson, AZ.

-B-