Thanks to CK for tracking this down online (nobody in town seems to carry it – been looking since they handed them out at Get in Gear)
For the first time in forever, slept in until 11:40. Sore (in a good way) – wonder how the 80-year-old is feeling today…
The 48th annual event in Duluth had lots of great stories:
- Elisha Barno winning his record sixth title in 2:10:54
- New women’s course record by Volha Mazuronak (2:23:52)
- New Garry Bjorklund men’s and women’s course records: Tebello Ramakongoana from Lesotho in 1:00:17 (!!) and Annie Frisbie from Edina in 1:07:33
- Superstar Megan in 4:34:32 (10:29 Minute Miles)
I can’t get over that nearly sub-hour half – that’s a 4:37 Minute Mile… 😂
UPDATE: Ramakongoana also won the 2024 Bloomsday in Spokane 💜
Everything about the actual Milk Run was good (the threatening letters and emails about it not being a fun run this year were terrible). Free parking on Como and the early access to the event post-race was nice. Heard today sold out – they may want to add more stands next year…
Pronto Pup ✅ Fresh French Fries ✅ Sweet Martha’s ✅ Peachey’s donut ✅
Need to double-check, but I think tomorrow is #24. Hope the forecast gets better 🌧️
This website has included charts on several pages for quite some time: the run log, the bike log and the golf score database have all had various graphs that were created using the Easy Chart Builder plugin by dyerware. It used the original Google Chart API to create a PNG graphic from the information in a shortcode that I updated manually after each new event.
Google deprecated that API in 2012 and according to the Wikipedia page, turned it off on March 18, 2019. For some reason, however, the plugin still worked after that (most of the time). Last week, though, it didn’t work at all. When I went to the Easy Chart Builder support page, I discovered the plugin hadn’t been updated in 11 years. Time to find a replacement, eh?
Google still has a free charting tool called Google Charts and most current WordPress charting plugins use that. I didn’t want to get stuck again with Google deprecating a service in the future, though, so I started looking for alternatives. I found an awesome looking open source graphing library called Chart.js and skimmed through the documentation for that.
Turns out there is a great free plugin that uses Chart.js from Jamie Poitra called M Chart that does everything I want. Jamie has nice documentation here and I was up and running with replacement graphs on all three pages in about an hour. Still need to read up on themes, but I like the default styles and might just leave it the way it is. The Highcharts stuff is interesting – hadn’t heard of that library (or the Norwegian company) before.
M Chart also uses shortcodes, but creates a chart object for each one that is updated like a post or page. Each chart has a spreadsheet-like interface for updating data, so I’ll have to see how I like that workflow. Ideally, I’d like to have the charts update automatically when I enter events into the database, but that is beyond the scope of this plugin. I currently use phpMyAdmin to enter events, so maybe I can tackle that whenever I get around to creating custom data entry screens…
- State and federal taxes ✅
- Office TV installed before the Masters ✅
- First outdoor training run of 2024 ✅
Upward and onward!
Went for my first outdoor run tonight and had a baby tick on my hand afterwards – was definitely on the nymph/larva side of the size scale
Mentally, I’ve very much enjoyed not wearing my Apple Watch daily. Physically, I’ve fallen way behind on my general fitness when I don’t track the circles. This week I decided to do something about that.
On Monday, I met with a personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness and took a tour of the Target Center club. We talked quite a bit about my past history and what I think I want to do this year, which is basically get back in running shape and lose weight.
While I elected not to hire him now as my personal trainer, here’s my current plan:
- Bought new running and gym shoes (and a new gym bag).
- Started back on the nightly treadmill hill walk with hand weights while watching shows from the list on the iPad.
- Preparing to run the Get in Gear 10K on April 27, the Milk Run 5K on May 25 and the TC 10 Mile on October 6. And if I get extra motivated, maybe the Afton 25K on July 6 too.
- Looking forward to the bike trails drying out – want to increase that cross training this year. Might add the bike attachment to Oliver’s roof rack.
- Planning to walk every golf round this year (like usual).
- Thinking about getting another weight bench to go with my dumbbell set.
- Utilize my access to Lifetime for indoor running, stair machine cardio, a return to racquetball, explore new classes and learn to be a better swimmer.
My schedule makes all of this challenging, but you need to prioritize what’s important, right?
I watched that documentary on this crazy-ass race a while ago, but I’m still surprised when it pops up in my social feeds each year (at random times). This year was awesome because of 40-year-old Brit Jasmin Paris, the first woman to finish the 100 mile race (with 99 seconds to spare before the 60 hour cutoff). BBC has a nice story here.
Bravo!
This is probably the best physical shape I’ve ever been – need to use this as motivation for 2024 plans
