Saturday, September 27, 2008

Bill's first Fastpass sketch!

Matt Baker era Phantom Lady. Tim did a great job on this one!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Civics!

Presidential Debate Watch Party!

Too much awesome!

Mike, Jay, Randy, Mike

Party Time II

Rich & Darwyn

Party time!

Tim & Richard

The finest in con attire

Kelly & Rich.

To the Bat-Pole!

That's Bill's "serious face"...

Roarrrrrr!

Geppi Entertainment Museum

Lunch!

Guess where? ;-)

That blur...

Is a turkey in the MHT parking lot. :-)

We're in Baltimore now. Whee! More later! :-)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Okay, so vote... willya?

No idea if anyone other than a handful of people read this, but even so... it's worth saying:

I don't care who you're favoring this election: McCain / Obama / Ron Paul / Ralph Nader / Donald Duck... whomever, it doesn't matter. Just register if you haven't. Don't know how? Need an absentee ballot? You can find answers at this site.

Think your vote won't matter? Think again. This race is statistically tight, and we all remember the uproar in 2000 when Gore won the popular vote but not the electoral vote. Your vote counts, and your state could be the one to make that difference.

I do feel strongly about this race, for my own reasons. And I'm willing to chat about them if you want, but not in this post. Just register. Then vote.

And thanks. :-)

Training, Week 6 / Run 1 (Long Run)

I kind of slacked off on week 5... got my easy run in on Wed, and it was beautiful out, so I decided to go out longer than I was scheduled to, and get some speed work in as well. Did 2.8 miles at a 9:31 pace. I was pretty happy.

Then I didn't run again until today. Oops! I was supposed to do a 5-mile run on Friday, but had too much going on.

So this week, I'm moving my runs up a day, since we're headed to Baltimore on Friday. I didn't want to be running on the days I'm flying (Friday and Monday). I figure I can manage to get one run in while we're gone (although it's an 8-miler... Yikes!).

Anyway, today's run was 7 miles (click to see the route). Felt great through the first 5 or so, and went exploring parts of town I wasn't really familiar with. Got yelled at by a rooster at the farm I almost got to before turning around. I may have to run down there again just to see what's down the rest of that road. At about mile 6, my hamstrings were yelling at me, and I was definitely glad I was close to home. My heels have been upset with me all day... maybe I need to get some new shoes...

Oh well. Still, after missing a run on Friday, I managed to make it. Felt pretty good. :-) Having the GPS app on the iPhone was a godsend, basically giving me license to explore since I know how far I've gone (and when I need to turn around).

Hopefully, my heels feel better soon (ow ow ow ow ow). :-)

Monday, September 15, 2008

Half Marathon Training: Week 5 (of 11), Run 1 (of 3)

Preface: I'll be posting these (semi) regularly in an attempt to stay motivated and honest to myself... You don't have to read them if you're not interested. :-)

The goal: The City of Manchester Half-Marathon on November 2nd. I started actually getting serious about training for it a month ago and went to Runner's World and set up my training plan. My long run days are Mondays (rest/cross-training days are Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I can still teach my Spinning classes), so today started off week 5 with a 6-mile run.

The last time I ran 6 miles, I hated it. It was for the Bill Kelley Memorial 10k in Manchester... in July... during rainstorms. Ugh. I also hadn't trained for it, so it was incredibly tough. I was hoping today would be different. I wasn't disappointed.

The weather today was incredible... it started off humid, but dried out by lunchtime. Nice and sunny, with a cool breeze. Perfect weather.

For the one person out there who's been wondering about this (you know who you are!), I did decide to run with my iPhone this time, after picking up an application for it that is supposed to use the built-in GPS to track distance/pace/etc. The App is "Running GyPSy" (get it: G-P-S... har!). It's WELL WORTH the cost! I also have a wrist worn Garmin GPS that I've used in the past (a Forerunner 201) that has been wonderful, but tends to cut out when signal strength is low. I went through multiple known "dead zones" for my GPS and this app never cut out on me once. There are maybe a few "gold plating" touches I would put on it, but I plan on giving the App a positive review on iTunes (and I rarely ever do that), so that says something, I suppose.

The route itself was nice. After getting through most of the uphill run, it was a nice, gentle downhill for a good chunk of it that helped me get a good amount of energy back. I managed to average a 10:31 minute mile for a 6-mile run (when I'm only supposed to be training at 11:54), so you KNOW it was a good run. :-) The only downside? The goose poop I stepped in right when I got back. $@!&# geese!!

Wednesday is an easy run at two miles, and Friday is my first "tempo run" at 5 miles with some speed work. I shouldn't be as long-winded about those two. :-)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Making Strides for Breast Cancer - October 19



On October 19th, I'll be walking in the "Making Strides for Breast Cancer" event in North Conway, NH, in honor of my mom (a survivor of breast cancer herself). I've set up a team ("Pat's Walkers"), so if anyone's interested in joining us, the more the merrier!

The link to the team pages is here: Pat's Walkers
You can join us via the link or make a donation if you like. If you want to walk with us, just let me know and I'll figure out where and when to meet.


Making Strides Against Breast Cancer - 2008-2009
2008 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of North Conway, NH

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Testing again

Just a test to see how the email interface works... And to show off
the funky snake that was in the barn. :-)