Senior Olympian Sprinter

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...