running

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The power of Twitter

Running wise it was a quite weekend.  I really think my hip is back to running health and I will test it out today.  I took the weekend off to rest it and because it was cold and rainy and I didn’t feel like running (just to be blunt).

I did have a cool thing that happened to me this weekend.  Not to do with running, but does deal with social media.

I have a Frigidaire refrigerator/freezer.  It has worked perfectly since we purchased it 5 years ago.  The frustrating part was that on the refrigerator side, all the shelves began breaking.  First the side door shelves and then the main section.  Even a nob built into the side of the fridge to hold a shelf broke off.  It has gotten to the point where we have 2 shelves in the main part of the fridge and 1 on the door and that is all that is left.  I thought about trashing it and getting a new unit, but it works flawlessly and the freezer side has no issues.

I checked on prices of the shelves and they range on the low side of $50 EACH.  That is crazy for shelves that have all broken.

So Saturday, in frustration I tweeted this:

@Frigidaire Great working fridge. Inside shelves all broke though and even pegs on wall to hold shelves.

Within minutes I got a tweet back and they asked for my email.  Long story short, after a few exchanges of emails and tweets, they sent me this:

Thanks for responding so quickly, Tom. I have provided you a parts reference guide for your refrigerator model. Please review it and provide me the part numbers you believe you are in need of. On behalf of Frigidaire, I would like to provide those to you at no cost as a way of saying thank you for being a part of our family.

Wow, now that is customer service.  I’ll be buying Frigidaire from now on and will recommend it to my friends.

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A great day – and a slow run!!!

Yesterday was a good day.

By the way, I  forgot to mention that my last post was #300 for me.  Pretty cool.  Next month will be one year of blogging.  I never thought I’d do that – and never thought I’d run a marathon.  Pretty big year.

Back to yesterday.

To begin with, I ran… a little.  I went out for my walk and decided to mix in some slow running to see how my hip was doing.  It did pretty well.  I didn’t time myself, but that old man with the walker passed me on my run so I know I wasn’t setting a PR. 🙂  Anyway, I walked a little and ran a little and then repeated that about 5 times.  3 miles.  So, I am beginning to feel confident that my time off of running after my 5K injury has helped and now I can begin to slowly get back into a routine.  (@BigBigGeek, I think we can do a slow run tomorrow at the park.  I’m not sure I can run the whole time though, so you may have to go on and meet me on your way back).

So running will begin again.  TJ still wants me to run the Shamrock marathon in Va. Beach in March.   Hmmm.  I’ve been thinking that might not happen, but I’m open.  I’ll see how December goes and how our half goes in February and decide from there.  Frankly that was not an option to me until he brought it up.  Although I never thought of running Boston until he brought it up.  What would I do without him!

Finally two great things happened at work yesterday.  First, my work has agreed to purchase my Google Glass option for the company.  I love that I am in IT and at a company who lets me be on the cutting edge.  Thanks Work!  Second, I was notified that our organization and the program I’ve created will be featured in major media markets in an advertising type of campaign.  The software company is impressed with our organization’s story and how I’ve programmed their software.

All in all it was a good day.

Today will be even better!

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Google Glass… My chance… Just out of reach

Still no running.  Yesterday was not a good SI day as it was raining and my hip was not well.  It was hard to walk my 3 miles, so I took it slow and just tried to enjoy the rain.  At least I was able to do that much.  At this point I am thankful for what I can do.  I keep reminding myself that this setback was due to running the Magic City 5K a week ago Sunday.  It was awesome, so I can’t complain.  To be honest,  it was worth the pain.

I got a surprise this morning in my email.  I got accepted to purchase Google Glass.

My chance at Google Glass

My chance at Google Glass

It is on a very limited distribution and won’t be out to the general public for a while.  For a geek like me this is AMAZING.  For those of you who aren’t geeks, it is essentially your phone apps projected in front of you via the glasses.  Could you imagine as a runner having your pace projected right in front of your eyes!  So cool!

Here is a link: http://www.google.com/glass/start/

Here is a video of what it is like to wear one:

The bad news is that they cost $1,500.  My heart broke.  I have a week to accept the offer, but I think that right now with Christmas so close that I won’t be able to afford one.  Oh well, I guess my Pebble watch will do for now.  Maybe I can save some money for when it is out for general distribution.

Off to work.  Everyone have an awesome day.

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Post 5K scare

So after our extremely successful 5K on Sunday, I had a bit of a scare.

My hip was doing fine and my SI joint was a little sore as expected after running as hard as I did.

In the afternoon during the football game I went outside to give to dog some exercise.  I really didn’t run, but trotted along to get him going.  After a couple of steps my left leg collapsed beneath me.  Literally I fell to the ground as if my leg wasn’t there.  Hmm… that can’t be a good sign.

Since then my leg has improved greatly.  I used the heating pad all day Monday and took anti-inflamitories.  I also rested and haven’t run or walked (for exersise) since Sunday’s race.  Yesterday I almost couldn’t drive to work because I use a stick shift and pushing in the clutch was painful.  Also at work as I got up from sitting, I would be in a lot of pain for about 15 seconds and then it went away slowly.

Today I feel about 80% better.  No problem using the clutch and getting up doesn’t hurt.  So, I think for the most part running that race didn’t set me back too much which is good.  I am still doing my stretches and using anti-inflamatoires to keep things settled down.

Don’t worry.  I am not running.  I will not run today and I’ll see how I do over the holiday weekend.

One thing I learned from my last 6 week pause from running because of my hip is… Doing too much too soon, is not a good idea.

To be brutally honest, as I was in the middle of my 5K, I thought to myself…  I am running this race to the best of my ability.  I am not going to be stupid, but as long as my body cooperates, I will finish the race and run as hard as I can!!!

Once I get back to normal, I will begin building a base for our half in February.

It is cold in the South today (37 as a high) and very windy.  Today might be a good day to take off and rest… I’m glad it isn’t 70 and sunny!

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It was an excellent race

The Magic City 5K will be memorable a memorable race for me!

The temperature was 30 degrees at race time with 10 – 20 mile an hour winds.  My app said the windchill was 17 degrees.  We froze.

TJ and me running warmup laps - reflection of us in the window of a building.

TJ and me running warmup laps – reflection of us in the window of a building.

TJ and I ran some warmup laps and then waited at the starting line.  The race started and he was gone.  After the first turn I never saw him again until the end.

For me, I enjoyed it a lot.  The first mile went great.  I managed a 7:05 pace which is good for me when I am training, let alone recovering from an injury.  After that mile I slowed down a bit.  My hip started hurting again right around the beginning of mile two (I know – I started to quickly).  It never got bad enough to make me stop, but I was wondering at one point if I might have to get a ride back to the finish.  Luckily that never happened.

As I entered my final mile, I could see only two people in front of me.  One was a 10 year old boy and one an older man.  We stayed about 30 yards a part the whole mile.  As we were on the last leg, the kid took off and passed the man.  I just watched from a distance.  I thought I might have a good chance of winning my age group since I didn’t see too many people in front of me and didn’t hear anyone behind me.

As I came up to the finish, I misread the clock.  My PR is 21:48 and the clock read 23:15.  I got confused and thought my PR was 23:48, so I pushed really hard the last tenth of a mile (I paid for that decision).  I finished at 23:53, which is a 7:41 pace.  I was thrilled to learn I finished 11th out of 379 which, even if it isn’t a PR, I’ll take it!

As I finished TJ met me with the news that he won the race!!!  Wow, he has come in second in a couple of races, but never won.  In fact he had to run behind the lead cop car for most of the race which meant he couldn’t run tangents.  Still he came in 1st out of 379 people – very cool.

We hung around for the awards ceremony which had already started.  TJ went up to get his metal – I was so proud of him.  When they got to the age group awards, I didn’t get one.  I did notice that we must have missed the mens masters.  Could I have placed in the masters?  When the awards were all given out I went to the guy with the results.  I asked about the masters and he look on his paper.  There I was, 2nd in the masters category.  Not bad for a gimpy old man.

All in all it was an awesome day.  We got to meet Ruben Studdard since this is a race he put on for his charity.

We finally got to head home and enjoy our memories.

Tom

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A fresh start to running

I had the best run of my new running carrier yesterday.

I consider myself as restarting my running as of this week.  Of course that isn’t really the case.  I have 2000 miles behind me over the past 20 months, but with taking so much time off recovering from my marathon and then multiple injuries, I feel like I am having a fresh start.

It’s funny how the human body works.  Some days are good and some not.  Yesterday was good.  In part of my run I actually reached BQ pace for the first time in months.  Of course my shoe untied shortly after I got there.  UGH.  That was frustrating, but I just tied it and jumped right back into the run.

At the three mile mark I stopped my app.  I was at a 8:36 pace for the three miles.  I then ran a slow final mile and even that came in at 9:08.

So I am psyched for my 5K on Sunday.  I really don’t think I have a chance at a PR, but I should be able to be a little competitive if my hip an heel stay well.  It is going to be cold though… Probably in the 30’s by race time.  That is much preferable to the heat and humidity of Summer, but still COLD for Birmingham.

Enjoy your day and stay healthy!

Tom

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Magic City 5K – My next race

I had a good run yesterday.  Unfortunately I had a little hip pain as I ran, but it was the first time I’ve run 2 days in a row in a long time.  The pain was just sharp jabs – about 3 in a period of a couple of minutes.  So I kept running.  I feel fine today.  In total, I ran 4 miles.  To break it up a little, I run 3 miles, walked a bit and then the forth.  Good times.

I think TJ and I are going to run the Magic City 5K on Sunday.  Assuming I can keep healthy, I would like to run a race.  I haven’t run anything since my marathon in early September.  I really enjoy running more after a race.  I will not be looking to PR since nothing would be worse for my hip than to run as hard as I can for 3.1 miles, but I really want to go for the experience.  The race is in downtown Birmingham.  We last ran downtown was during the Mercedes half marathon last February. 

So with this race I will feel like my running is beginning to get back on track.  With the Mercedes Half Marathon next February, I’ll have to begin training soon.  I haven’t run more than 5 miles at one time in months.  Last year I ran the half in 1:44 and I’d really like to beat that this year if possible.

It is nice to have something to write about again.  Running is fun, walking is boring.  I hope I never get hurt again. 🙂

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Running again and it feels good

Yesterday was the first day of my new running life… I hope!

I am going to try to get back into some type of training.  I don’t have a race picked out yet, but I need to get my base back up so that I don’t get injured again.  I feel that if I take it easy, listen to my body and do the things I know I need to do, I’ll be back in the saddle soon.

My run yesterday will be my staple for a while.  I am going to run 3 miles and then walk the forth.  Yesterday I ran my 3 miles in under 28 minutes and walked for a minute and then ran my forth mile in 10:28.  Just a slow mile home.

All in all I feel pretty good.  My hip is a little sore today, but nothing big.  I really feel I need to get back to a daily run, even if isn’t long or fast.

Boston… Here I come… Well maybe in a few years!!!

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Another run, great shoes, a good watch; life is good!

3 runs in 4 days!

I think I’m getting back slowly.

I ran 3 miles yesterday and walked another.  My hip felt really good.  Almost no pain!  My heel spur, well that was a bit painful.  Funny that while I walked it was more painful than while running.

Anyway, I think my Brooks PureFlow’s are really a good shoe for me.  TJ helped me pick them and they seem to give me the right balance between support and lightness.  I did notice while I was walking that my left heel with the spur was striking the inside of the shoe rather than the middle.  I might have had them too loose.

On to my Pebble watch I got for my birthday.  It is awesome.  Of course now that I spent $150 on the watch Apple will probably release the long awaited iWatch, but until then, this is a great substitute.  It really complements my iPhone.  Not only does it show all the notifications from my iPhone, including texts and calls (so I don’t need to keep taking my phone out of my pocket just to see what that last beep was for), but it also works great with my iSmoothRun app.  As I run I can see the time of my run, the miles and the pace just by looking at my watch.  For me, this is great as I always run with my iPhone.  Finally the watch vibrates when there is a notification.  I can’t always feel my iPhone vibrate so I have to keep the volume up.  I hate to have my phone go off at work.  So this allows me to always know when there is an alert.

So life goes on.  I’m taking tomorrow off to get my son his license.  Sad to have to get up at 6:00 on my day off, but that is about 2.5 hours longer sleep then I normally get during the week, so I’m happy.

If I don’t write tomorrow, have an awesome weekend.

Tom

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Running blog spam

It was a cold and windy day…

Sounds like the beginning of a novel…

It was cold – for the South.  50 degrees and 20mph winds.  I made the choice to walk rather than run.  My lower back was a bit sore all day and I had to get up at 2:30AM, so I thought being that I haven’t run much lately, I wouldn’t take the chance of hurting myself again.

My walk went well.  3 miles and then home.  Other than being cold, there wasn’t much to it.  No dogs in strollers.  Just a nice walk.

On a totally unrelated note, I’ve been found by the spambots.  My comments have been getting spammed and rather than trying to keep up with marking them as spam, I decided to have to approve all comments.  Rather annoying, but I had no choice.

Have a good day.

Tom

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2 days – 2 runs

Another successful run yesterday.  I decided to stop after 3 miles since I was a bit sore from Sunday and my heel spur was acting up.

During my run I came up on 3 women out power walking.  They were taking up the left half of the road, so I had to go around on the right.  As I approached them I noticed that the one in the middle had a jogging stroller.  They were talking and having a good time.  I went around them and they commented about me running so fast (which was a pleasantry as I wasn’t running fast at all).  I looked back after I got around them to look at the baby and there was a dog in the stroller!  Ha.  They called out, “bet you thought it was a baby in there!”  That made my run a bit more enjoyable.

So I ran my route and headed home.

All in all it is nice that I got two runs in a row in.  I am not hurting at all today and feel like I might have turned the corner.  Of course I have 10 extra lbs now I have to work on losing, but it could be worse.

Finally, I have had several blog nominations lately.  Thank you to everyone.  I plan on working on them as I get my life in some sense of order.  I really appreciate you all!

Tom