Senior Olympian Sprinter

 A cranberry bog near Vancouver with fresh snow on the mountains.  Quite a panorama. The mountains were beautiful and the skyscrapers in the foreground made for a great picture SSSS stamp--this crap is not random.     I traveled this week to Vancouver, BC Canada on business.  I want to inform the uninformed, that it is not like on TV.   I traveled on Southwest and Delta Airlines, which is a little odd , but there are reasons that I will try to explain.  On TV commercials, they show the travelers that paid for first class seats having their wine and cheese in their fancy seats and enjoying the sunset out the window of the plane.   OK, it can happen, but those people are not you and I.    By the way, Delta has only 8 747 planes, the big ones that are shown quite frequently on TV commercials, so your chance of riding in a big 747 and behaving like these people is remote.   They basically run a ...

We have been decorating away so Santa can find our house. Lights on the front porch with a couple of inflatables to add some kid attraction.  The tree is up and actually filled with presents underneath.    I am done with shopping and actually have a lot of the Christmas cards in the mail--Yes!  I still do a few cards to family and some school friends from college and high school.   During the year is very difficult to keep up with everyone and the Christmas cards let them know what my latest info is for addresses and phone numbers.   Old fashioned, but it actually works pretty well.   We have also been doing some work around the house to get ready for the kids ( all adults now) who will start arriving on the 23 rd and stay thru the 26 th and then all disappear again.  It should be a lot of fun, we try to get everyone in the same room at least one time a year and this year we get them all at our house....

The United States and gun violence seems to connected in some strange way and it appears the answer is going to be one of the messiest situations that we have ever experienced.  Guns are easy to get if you have the money and connections, the black and gray market is unregulated, and the retail market is relatively unchecked in many respects. There are people that currently have thousands of rounds of ammo in their houses with dozens of military grade weapons.   You can accumulate as much as you can afford.    No limits or controls anywhere.   This has got to change if we are going to stop the random acts of mass killings that makes this country look like we are owned by the mafia.  In the 1990's I had a license to sell guns through the BATF and would sell guns to people I knew for sporting and hunting purposes.  The license allowed me to get better pricing on ammo and guns.  I did a lot of shooti...

The Ravenwood Raptors finished it off last night with the 6A Tennessee Football championship.  Last year they were beaten by one in overtime on the extra point conversion.  That ending, and the sick feeling it left everyone on the team and those connected to it, was the drive to get back to Cookeville and get the championship that they were an eyelash from achieving.  All season this year, getting back and finishing was the target.   Pretty simple goal, but incredibly hard to achieve.  The object of their quest was Maryville Rebels.   Mayville has been in the championship game for 7 straight years.  They have won 4 and lost to Hillsboro, Whitehaven and now Ravenwood.  Maryville is expected to be in the championship game and are expected to be good.  They were rated # 1 in Tennessee this year and 18 th in the USA Today school national rankings.   They are expected to win, that is just how it works.    R...

Today is The Game.  Michigan vs Ohio State with a lot riding on the one.   This is a make or break for either program.   I am a Buckeye and Linda is a Wolverine, so let the fur fly.   And it will!! Last night Linda and I went next door to watch the Raptors return to the state finals in 6A football for the second straight year.   It was a fantastic game.  20-13 was the final. Two great kids on this team are Crews Holts "The Leg" # 97 who kicked a 55 yard field goal last night to tie the score at 13 all and break the back of the Memphis Whitehaven team.  The opponents had a very poor kicker and extra points were a challenge.  His bomb just broke their will from my stand point as an interested fan.  The wind was in his favor on this kick, and I saw him hit a 52 yarder this season, so he has the leg.  I talked to him in the summer and he wanted to go to LSU and kick, I don't see anything stopping that ...

Thursday morning I am involved in a 5K at the local mall.  Race starts at 8:00 AM and I think we do a couple of laps around the Cool Springs Mall.  The weather should be decent , mid forties at race time.   I have been doing some pace training at 8:41 per mile pace on the treadmill.   I think I can beat 30 minutes or at least I will give it a shot.   We will see.  I noticed a little twinge in my left heal today while stretching and I am betting that the plantar fascia is coming loose from the heal.  I damaged the right foot PF a couple of years ago and it appears that the left one is following suit.  I will start taping up both feet in the mean time and see if I can head it off before I do any big damage.  I do not feel any pain while running at my 5K pace and I will be resting the next 6 weeks after this race--my annual outage.   Linda and I visited our youngest in Austin, Texas over the weekend and had a gr...

I have been slacking on my blogging lately.   But things are still happening and I still have things to say.   As far as the running world, I have been working on new stuff--which I do every year.  But I have signed up for a 5 K on Thanksgiving morning at the Cool Springs Mall, and have been training with that in mind.   My goal has always been breaking 30 minutes, and that goal is still in place.   I have been doing some interesting training as of late-- strength and distance combination.   I have been doing a lot more weight work on the upper body and legs and doing slower speed running on the treadmill and asphalt.  No speed work at all.   I will do legs two or three days in a row which really makes them quite sore and unresponsive.  But in a day or two the power is there as is endurance.  So, whatever is happening is a good thing.   I can run a long time at a 9 minute mill pace on a trea...

Last Saturday the Greater Nashville Senior Games District Qualifier was ran at Brentwood High School Track.  I ran in the 4 sprints and took three gold and a silver medal.  Overall it was great event for me.  I ran in a new class, the 60 to 64 year old class.  I am actually 58, but in Olympian years I am 59 and next year, when they run the state meet for which we qualified, I will be 60 in Olympian years--confused, that is OK.  Kinda messy to figure your Olympian age.   I wore pinks sleeves the first three races because I was chilly after I got sweaty warming up around 8:30 AM.  I also wore the pink sleeves to celebrate those who have battled breast cancer and won.  Breast cancer has got to be an absolutely horrible way to be tortured by cancer.  I posted the picture of my sleeve and medals on Facebook and one of my high school class mates responded that she had been a 10 year survivor--- I nearly cried.  ...

With the Foo Fighters in town this week and really putting on a great rock show, Linda and I were discussing our top five shows all time and it is a hard list to break into, but here mine. My Top Five Shows--All time: 1-- J Geils Band in the late 70's, some small opera house in Ohio.  Absolutely no doubt the best ever 2--Foo Fighters at the Bridgestone this week--  a lot of energy in the joint 3-Devo at a tent outside the casino in Green Bay.  Just too much fun. 4- Heart at the Oshkosh County Fair, standing on the dirt track.  They rocked away while I had the red sauce from a fiery hot Greek sandwich running down my arm. Beer would not calm this stuff down.   It was the county fair.... dust, beer, food, screaming guitars. 5--Bruno Mars at the Bridgestone.  A lot of screaming for that one. There was a lot of talent on the stage that night. Not making the top 5 were-- Eagles, Train, Bob Seger, AC DC, Tom Jones, Brad Paisley, Kiss...

    Oh, if you had not heard, the Foo Fighters were in town last night and Linda purchased tickets last year and they were my Christmas present in 2014. Wow, what a show.  I can only think of one that I remember as better and that was the J Geils Band in the late seventies in some small venue near Oxford, Ohio.  The energy in the buildings both nights was absolutely incredible.   FF played 2 1/2 hours and they were so much fun.  They interacted with the audience a lot, and just put on an incredible show.   Dave Grohl has a leg in a walking cast from a broken lower leg when he fell off a stage during a show.  He stayed on his little 'throne' for the entire show.  But he had a lot energy and he has a great rock n roll scream.   Nobody got a chance to sit down until the 1 hour and 45 minute mark.  That is some energy!!!!  If you get a chance to see them, go and enjoy some real rock.  ...

One of my favorite shows is called Air Disasters which is on the Smithsonian Channel every week.  They do a full hour recreation of airline crashes where every body dies or really close misses where everybody is OK.   They have all types of planes globally doing bad things on the show.   The show also does a brilliant job of solving why the  disaster occurred.   Yesterday, Linda and I had  a shot at a starring role!   We were flying from Nashville to Marquette, MI via a stop in Detroit on Delta.   I know I have bitched about Delta in the past, but this was a great plan to save a lot of time and the tickets were frequent fliers points, so they were cheap.  We flew on an MD 88 to Detroit and had a couple hours to get some lunch and stretch out a little.  We worked our way to our gate and about 30 minutes prior to loading, the first excuse was offered.  Crew is here, no plane.  Over the next hour, no plane.  It was an RJR j...

Setbacks are part of life and we generally have no choice but to accept them in style.  I was in Wisconsin this week presenting some material to a large group of tissue makers.  Normally, you are subjected to hotel food and eating in groups.    I try as much as I can to be strict on my diet due to my garlic allergy and restrictions from gout when traveling.  I must have either goofed up or had something slip by, but I got a major case of food poisoning Monday night.  As I get older, the food poisoning symptoms and reaction becomes more severe and lingers much longer.   I got sick--the messy part- Monday night late and was finished with that deal by Tuesday morning.  But all day Tuesday and into Wednesday my body was trashed.  Tuesday was stay in bed basically all day.  I did leave the hotel twice for visits to the local store for some food and liquids.  Getting out of bed and to the car was a major task and quite le...

Linda and I came up with a bucket list a few years back and this week we crossed off the Ford Thunderbird entry.   Since Linda was old enough to date she was a fan of the Thunderbird, and had always dreamed of owning one.  This last week we did some Tbird shopping and drove three different Tbirds and really liked a 2004 that Waltrip had just gotten on the lot.  A couple of emails to the insurance people, and a trip to the credit union and we were set.  I was a fan of the 2004, over the two  2002 cars we also drove, because of the special wheels on the 50 th anniversery edition and it had a select shift tranny.  The select shift is huge advantage in the hills around this part of the world.  The normal wheel is a 7 spoke chrome spoke wheel, but this smaller spoke I think looks more sophisticated  and stays cleaner.  We have taken a couple of nice rides with the top down and it is a lot of fun. ...

Everybody likes milestone numbers and 20 is my dirt milestone.   I just finished up Phase 1 of the      kitchen and the dishwasher is now working in the pantry!!  It is crowded, but this is the best design that allows us to do phase 2 in the format we want.  The dishwasher is super quiet and really gets stuff clean and sparky.   The 20 comes into the equation when you go below the floor of the house.  I have removed, by my calculations, 20 yards of dirt from the crawl space so I could get access for wiring, drains, and supply water.  Phase 2 will take more removal, but I am seriously thinking of buying a conveyor to move the dirt.  We will see what happens.  I have been pretty healthy for the last two years, but I had a slight set back this week.  I was at the corporate office working and the ventilation is the building is uneven.  To say the least, I struggle keeping hydrated and it makes f...

I am always in search of some new gear and I picked up a pair of Nike Zoom Victory 2 spikes.  They scaled in at 4.8 ounces each and are several ounces lighter than my current spikes.  I tried them out tonite and they are wicked fast.  Since my best races start on the curve, I did some curve starts tonight with my blocks. They are really light and they will be great for race day, but they will not be good for training due to the incredibly light fabrics used. There is almost no protection anywhere in the shoe.  They are all about speed and I will have to careful not to use them much in training. I ran on grass two nights ago.   During my warm up and stretching I almost quit.  Some feeling of aimlessness came over me and I almost packed up and went home.  Man, that would have been stupid, but the thought went through my head.  Where does that stuff come from ?  I had a pretty good work out, running with my parachute on some short sprints. ...

The view from the top of the trail head for the Grandview Trail in the Grand Canyon National Park. This view is to the Northwest. Looking at the starting point with the Moon getting a view of the day in the canyon.   Trail on the left side-- some scary stuff here. The scenery is just spectacular, you have to stop and just take it in. Near my turn turnaround point there is an old mining works, with a modern sign to warn of radiation hazard. A lot of green rocks scattered about.   These are the notes that I took for the hike with my Apple I phone 6.  Some additional info has been added post hike.  But it gives good idea of the exertion required and the amount of fuel your body will burn. I was on the trial for 5 hours and there was 12 people including me on the trail of 6 miles round trip.   I was in Flagstaff , AZ this week to visit a tissue mill.  I made my trip long enough to get in a little Canyon hiking, I was too close ...

   I added an APP to my phone that would give the elevation of my current location.   It also gives the pressure and boiling points as well.   As you can see, things are a little different at this elevation    I am in Flagstaff, Arizona this week working.   This is my first overnight here and I thought I would do a little training at the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks stadium. The weather was in the 80's with no clouds in the sky and a light breeze.  I got the stadium around 5 PM and there was a steady stream of people that were coming to the stadium as well.  I asked a couple of people about the crowd, which ended up around 100 people, and  the local running shoe store did a weekly training session to help distance sunning get some speed.  Pretty cool deal.   There was all ages and abilities and they worked out for about an hour as well.  The area has a lot of runners, which speaks ...

I traveled to North Carolina this week and usually travel via Interstate 40.   Coming back I took a short cut thru the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  It is shorter as the crow flies, but time wise it is a couple hours more.  I decided that sometimes you need to smell the roses or they will die and you will miss them.   The roses up on top of the Smokies smell and look pretty good.  What a view!  Next week I will be out West and may get a chance to visit the Grand Canyon.  Even though it is the prime tourist season, I may try to hike a bit.  The elevation is around 7000 feet, and I will have ,to wait and see how I adjust to the thin air.  If I adjust well, I will do some hiking, otherwise just smell the roses with some site seeing. I finally got out on the track today and ran some sprints.  I worked on running 400 and 300 meters with the same time for the first section as the last.  I also experimented with a new parachut...

I traveled this week and spent several days crisscrossing the Western portions of Oregon and Washington.  It was very clear and Mt Hood looked fantastic.  I also got a chance to check out Mt Hood from the air.  It looks good either way.  We were in the Columbia River Gorge  as well, and the scenery was really something.   That is definitely big country out there. The weather was really warm and dry in Albany, Oregon and I did try to run outside and it was so dry I really struggled with my breathing, so I just ran inside on the treadmill.  I am working on my endurance and weight loss, so I am doing 800 meter and 1600 meter runs.   I have finalized my racing schedule for the rest of the season.  I will run in Kentucky and do the 100 400 double.  They are electronic timed and I really want to get a good 400 time and break 62 seconds if possible.  Kentucky is a Sunday meet and that  helps logistics as well.   My last meet ...

The dark side exists.    This is a post that I have been thinking about for around a week and I need to get it out in the open.   Those who have known me long realize that I can get depressed in the winter due to the lower levels of light.  I have been dealing with it for a long time and I think the situation is under control.  I understand I have a problem and Linda is very helpful in reminding me that I am slipping and I need to fix it.  A couple of days before the meet last weekend, my left side lower jaw was hurting.  I could eat, but the pain was significant enough to think about getting some help.   It was too late to get it looked at before the meet, so I had to just deal with the situation.  I have had some injuries on the left side of my head decades ago, but side effects of  those things will pop up after time.  I chewed long leaf tobacco for thirty some year and was a 'left sider'.  Two thi...