Needed something mindless this afternoon, so I’m running updates in all my VMs and doing a little research
I guess now we know what it takes to bring down Amazon – 99 cent Gaga
Walleye sandwich at Bay View
Back on the shores of Lake Vermilion on a rainy, gray Monday morning
The newly remodeled Tobies
Living the rainy country club lifestyle (just for the day)
Saturday full of plays (Wizard of Oz twice featuring kid two), bike rides and no cable TV
I love that the strongest over-the-air HD signal we get post-cable is PBS
For the first time ever, my house now has no cable TV – switched to Internet only today
One of the many benefits of running
Ran 19 miles in Minneapolis: Nokomis, Minnehaha Creek, Harriet, Calhoun, Lake of the Isles and back. Ready for a Smashburger
Screw you, rain, I’m going for a run anyways
Another fun Robert Cray concert tonight at the Pantages – short set, though
Literally hundreds of bugs are meeting their match with the MINI windshield today – so gross
Coda and the Subversion repository I created at Beanstalk seem to work great together – why would I also need Versions?
Switched from a black 3GS to a white 4 today – the retina display is very, very nice. Think I will also really like the upgraded camera
Shot a decent 87 from the combined tees tonight at The Wilderness. Pretty sure I was the only one on the entire back nine
I love my employer
Also decided to give the “official” Mac Twitter client another spin (version 2.1) after going back to the original Tweetie – getting better
Trying out a sample account with Beanstalk for Coda/SVN integration while I wait for my new white iPhone 4 to be provisioned
Trying a new menu item at The Wilderness Grill outside on the patio, to be followed by hitting some balls on the range
Can I go here if I promise to run instead of jog?
Ran 7 miles on Echo Point – just realized it was one year ago I broke my toe (happy birthday Kristine!)
$5 million because Chuck E. Cheese promotes gambling?
Last week I decided to give it another go at a distance I find really difficult – the one mile. I’ve only attempted one other mile race since high school and I almost passed out at the finish line of that one (the former Grandma’s 1 Mile at the Minnesota State Fair grounds). In that race, I thought I could still run in the fives and went out way too fast. I seem to recall hitting the midway point around 2:30 and then proceeded to hit a wall on the home stretch before finishing with a 6:34. This time I wanted to even out the pace better and shoot for a six minute mile (or at least a PR).
My friend Megan was running for Allina in the corporate wave of the TC 1 Mile and talked me into joining her. This was the seventh year of the event, but the first for both of us. The course is a straight shot down Nicollet Mall, starting near Washington and ending around the bend near Loring Park. It’s basically flat or downhill and the wind was helping most of the way. I could have done without the misty drizzle, but the cool temps were appreciated.
This race is really well organized – the multiple waves were timed so that runners missed the light rail trains and traffic was only minimally delayed. Megan and most of the thirty or so people from Allina ran in the second wave. I decided to run in the masters wave (along with Megan’s friend Susan), which was the fourth one out. The last two waves were the elite women and men and we stuck around to watch those amazing athletes smash the time bounties of 4:32 for women and 4:00 for men.
As for my race, I don’t think I was really prepared. I’ve run a fair amount this spring and had done some speed work on the treadmill the week before the race (7:00/6:40/6:20 reps), but I could tell right away it was going to be tough to get to six. My arms felt weird (I haven’t done a lot of upper body work yet this year) and my breathing wasn’t very smooth. I had hoped to do four 90 second quarter splits, but hit the first one at 1:22 and the midway point right at 3:00. I don’t really remember the third split and had no kick left whatsoever at the end (despite Megan cheering me on and seeing the clock two blocks away).
So 6:20 it was. That was still a PR, though, and I guess overall I’m happy with that. Megan also had a PR (6:38) and probably would have beat me if we ran in the same wave (make sure and check out her awesome new blog, Forty By Thirty). We all hit the Local afterwards for post-race drinks, which was really fun.
Watch out Minneapolis, I’ll keep coming back until I see a “5:” on that timer…