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...