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Training Archive: PG

In the 29 days ending 2008-02-29:

activity # timemileskmclimb
  road running11 8:44:52 62.55 100.67
  nautilus12 8:20:00
  treadmill3 1:40:41 12.73(7:54) 20.49(4:54)
  trail running1 55:02
  track1 29:20 3.8(7:43) 6.12(4:47)
  Total28 20:09:55 79.08 127.27
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Thursday Feb 28

Note
Some musings....

1. I was at the gym a couple of days ago and there was a fellow I've seen there several times, we say hello, he's friendly, older black guy, pretty lean. I asked him if he was a runner. Yes, he was, though not so much now. What sort of distances, I asked. 400 meters, plus the long jump and the high jump, he was probably best at the long jump. What was your best, I asked. 25' 5", back in the mid/early 60s, when the record was about 26-6. And he reminisced a bit, on that jump he just dragged one foot a little too much, his other foot went in the sand at 26-2. He's just been inducted in the hall of fame at the college he went to in Kansas. Loved to run the 400, best was 46 and a small fraction.

Just a nice guy, fun to talk to. Never know what you might learn if you just try.

2. My good friend Dave's mother died on Saturday. She had been in poor health for quite a while, dementia, in a nursing home for the last 18 months. On Friday she was having trouble breathing, they got an ambulance and took her to the hospital, and the next morning she died. Probably, if you look at it rationally, a blessing. Though that is hard to do.

The wake was scheduled for Monday evening, 5-7, in Northampton. I felt I should go, I remember going when his father died and Dave appreciated it, but I was swamped at work, appointments well into the evening, and I didn't get around to canceling the appointments and so I didn't go. And at the time I would have been at the wake, one of my appointments was a young couple, I've done their taxes for several years, one of my less favorite clients, the wife especially, she always seemed bitter about life, always owed money, just an unhappy person. I'd at least managed to get her the last couple of years to have enough taken out of her pay so she would get a small refund, but she still seemed pretty glum.

Anyway, she'd changed jobs about 6 months ago, now a nurse's aide, bottom of the pecking order in that profession, and she had a W-2 from the same nursing home where Dave's mom had been. So I said the mother of a good friend of mine had been there and had just died and did she know her. Oh, yes, my client and another aide had been in charge of taking care of Dave's mom, and they thought the world of her, a sweet old lady, and there were many tears shed over the weekend. And as she said this, she was tearing up again.

I felt somewhat guilty for not making the wake. But I called Dave the next morning to tell him all the nice things I'd heard about him mom, and I know he appreciated that, and I felt better too.

3. A client yesterday, woman in her late 40s, school teacher. I did their taxes last year for the first time, right at the end of the filing season. Her husband came in, he made good money, maybe 125K (very good around here), had been looking for someone to do their taxes over the years but never happy with what they found, owed lots of money. Asked what my credentials were. I said I had none, but I just did individual returns, I did a lot of them, and I knew what I was doing. And just before we were done he called up his wife and said something to the effect of, we've found ourselves a tax guy, clearly pleased with what I'd done.

So this year the wife comes in. Because, as I find out, her husband had dropped dead a week ago. Boom, massive heart attack, gone. We take care of things, it's not easy, of course, because at the same time as I'm trying to get her straight on what she needs to do I'm also thinking about mortality in general, and my mortality in particular.

4. And finally, the reason I have some time for writing these notes, is because I cancelled most of my appointments for today to go down to Springfield and get a prostate biopsy. Not fun, but nothing awful either, certainly less pain than I've had at a multitude of sporting events or workouts over the years.

What is totally different is on the emotional side and there the word that best describes my feelings is fear. Just pure simple fear. I am trying my best to deal with it, but it is hard.

Wednesday Feb 27

nautilus 35:00 [1]
Knee better but still not right. Have an appointment for PT, but first I could get was in a couple of weeks.

Seems like AP has changed some of its format. Initial reaction is I liked it better the way it was. Guess I need to get with the program, but right now I don't have time (or inclination)....

Monday Feb 25

nautilus 20:00 [1]
Knee much sorer than I would wish. Need to take a few days off. And way too busy at work.

Sunday Feb 24

road running race 1:18:31 [3]10.0 mi (7:51 / mi) vdot: 42.7
shoes: Asics trail
Amherst 10 Mile, hilly course. Felt tired and slow, surprised the time wasn't worse. Oh, well, better than doing nothing. And at least I broke 80 (plan was someplace between 78 and 80).

7:23, 7:19, 8:23, 8:28, 8:01 (39:34), 7:45, 7:20, 7:56, 7:46 (mile marker was too soon?), 8:10.

Legs mostly ok during the run, a couple twinges around 8 miles. A little sore afterwards. Don't think I did any damage.

road running 8:00 [3]
shoes: Asics trail
A little warm-up.

Friday Feb 22

track 29:20 [3]3.8 mi (7:43 / mi)
shoes: Asics trail
A short pre-breakfast run at the Smith indoor track, included 5x200, just intended to start trying to get the legs used to moving a little faster, even though the legs felt like I lifted too many elephants yesterday. 46.7, 46.7, 44.5, 43.4, 43.3, all with 200 between. Was planning on 8 reps, but this seemed like enough.

Then a visit with the urologist in Springfield. Biopsy next week to see if anything bad is happening. One step at a time.

Got a ticket last night to go to the Flying Pig, non-stop Hartford-Columbus for $161 round trip. Seemed like a good price, a couple hundred cheaper than flying into Cincinnati.
C • Columbus 4

Thursday Feb 21

nautilus 1:00:00 [1]



Actually that's for January. This month should be fewer elephants, but then it's a shorter month.


Note
Internet access at work conked out mid-morning and stayed out for the rest of the day. Glad I don't use web-based software. I couldn't file any returns but I could keep creating them. Hopefully it gets fixed tomorrow, the Verizon guy is supposed to be hand, finally.

It does feel weird to be so isolated. No e-mail, no AP, no news, and even no access to the IRS or a few other places for research. Strange. Just like normal a decade ago.

Wednesday Feb 20

Note
A very cool drive home down 91 watching the lunar eclipse unfold, significant change in the 15 minutes it took to get home. Perfectly clear night for watching the rest of it.

C • eclipse 3
road running 55:13 [3]7.06 mi (7:49 / mi)
shoes: Asics trail
With Phil, roads north of Greenfield.

Here's what he proposed --"I'd be looking to do around 50-60 minutes at an 8:15 pace."

And so for 55 minutes the only time we ran as slow as 8:15 was on the uphill first mile. And, clearly bothered by that, Phil then pushed the pace the rest of the way, razzing me ceaselessly about how slow we were going, how good this was all going to be for me (under the Nietzsche theory, since it seemed I wasn't actually going to die on the spot), how much I really needed this, and on and on, all the time checking his Forerunner, announcing triumphantly after each mile how much more the pace had picked up. He clearly was having a great time.

And on average we were slightly better than miserable. So that's not so bad!

My only moment of something even close to pleasure was just after we were done, when I realized we were done, I was still upright, and I seemed not to have done any serious damage.

Oops, take that back. One moment of pleasure on the run, when I asked Phil what he was going to run the 10-miler in on Sunday, and he said 71 minutes, good enough to beat my time from three years ago. And he seemed quite distressed when I told him my time three years ago was just over 70. So he has to run a little faster than planned.... :-)




C • Actually, one other moment ... 1

Tuesday Feb 19

road running 48:41 [3]5.75 mi (8:28 / mi)
shoes: Asics trail
As usual, you pay for having good legs one day by having no legs the next day, especially on any uphills. So it goes.

Or maybe it was penance for watching a soap opera yesterday. Is there some sort of 10% rule that applies to watching soaps, where if you up the hours too fast you pay for it? Just in case, no no more soaps for a while, at least until I'm sure I'm fully recovered from yesterday's overdose.
Note
Todays route.

Just had a client, she must check in at at least 2.5 G, she was working for Yankee Candle (big employer around here), but not any more. I asked her why, she said she got tired of the way she was treated and at some point told them to, go on, fucking fire me. Which they did, except they did it in a way she couldn't get unemployment. And then they went to a judge and got a restraining order to keep her off their property. Seriously.

Except it wasn't serious to her, she was just laughing about it, she seemed real good about just moving on with her life, and a nice person too. And I was laughing real hard, somehow the sight of this big company getting a restraining order against her was just too absurd.

I suppose the real reason they fired her was because she was fat? And that part's not funny.

Monday Feb 18

treadmill 48:41 [3]6.25 mi (7:46 / mi)
shoes: Asics trail
Went on the treadmill because, although it was about 50F outside and quite pleasant for running, all the rain over and done with, the fog was so thick that visibility in places was no more than 50-75 yards, and I figured the odds of getting run over were significantly greater than zero.

Felt pretty good. Two easy miles to warm up, then thought I'd do what passes for a tempo run these days, 3 miles at 7:30 pace, but it felt a little too easy for a tempo run, so then I did one more mile at 6:40 pace, and that got me breathing hard though still feeling ok. And then an easy quarter mile to wind down. Knee was ok mostly, getting a little sore at the end. But the run seemed like progress. Which is good!


Note
So today while I was on the treadmill the big TV was showing the latest from Days of our Lives, which is one of the classic soap operas, I do believe. I had my earphones tuned to the local radio station, but all was not lost because the TV had closed captioning. And it got me to wondering, are the writers for this show part of the writers that have been on strike? Because if they are, well, my opinion would be that whatever they are getting paid is too much.

Maybe the script sounds good, when you hear it, probably with a bunch of heart-wrenching music. But when the script is laid bare on the screen, it seems like something that I could write pretty easily, as long as I remembered to put in the occasional note, like (deep breathing).

So anyway, the story, best as I can figure it out, is a bunch of people flying a private plane have just crashed, and they are strewn around in the snow, and one by one they sort of come to, though not without their problems. Like the guy who has had one leg apparently crushed by part of the plane, but fortunately it's his prosthetic leg, and some other guy is apparently virtually dead, so his girl friend figures this is the time to tell him they're going to have a baby, and that revives him, and some women who is a doctor has her shoulder dislocated, or something, and so some other guy has to pull and rotate while she keeps going "Ooh" until it gets fixed, and there are a few other ailments, and at some point they try use a defillibrater. The best part is that no one is cold! The worst part was probably the lack of what I assumed would be ample display of skin to compensate for putting up with the inane script.

Meanwhile, there are some other folks waiting back home, showing somewhat more skin, who are slowly finding out that the plane has gone down.

And that was pretty much it. Or at least my version. Here's where they have the daily updates if you want the official version.

Just think what I would have missed if it hadn't been foggy.
C • soaps 3

Sunday Feb 17

nautilus 25:00 [1]
road running 25:28 [3]3.11 mi (8:10 / mi)
shoes: Montrail #2
Flat roads in Greenfield. Not too bad. And then off to the basketball game, where the governor was in attendance. When introduced, he got a loud round of applause and no boos. That sure wouldn't have been the case if Romney had ever showed up.
C • U Mass over St Louis U? To... 4

Saturday Feb 16

road running 44:48 [3]5.53 mi (8:06 / mi)
shoes: Montrail #2
Well, maybe a little better. Lovers Lane loop from the Body Shoppe. Legs felt better and put out a decent effort, even though the pace still sucks for what I felt like I was doing. I guess that's the way it is. But at least the legs had a little life. Knee is doing a little better, but still sore afterwards.

Went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival in the evening. Pretty good. Had me thinking about going skiing again, it's been more than 20 years. We'll see. Definitely did not have me thing about going BASE jumping or unicycling.
C • skiing 10

Friday Feb 15

Note
New client this morning, first person I have ever met who has had a heart transplant. Very, very nice guy, considers himself the luckiest guy in the world. Takes 179 pills a week to keep his immune system under control.

Wow.
C • That's not quite as many pi... 1
nautilus 20:00 [1]
Just not into it. Quit after a while, went off to try the treadmill, quit after about a minute, went to the grocery store.

Thursday Feb 14

road running 1:09:44 [3]8.14 mi (8:33 / mi)
shoes: Montrail #2
Adams Road, Log Plain, Lovers Lane, back Adams Raod, from the Body Shoppe. A struggle all the way, but done. One of these a run will feel good, or at least I sure hope so. The usual few minutes on the roller afterwards, quads, calves, hamstrings. Route.

Long day at work, still far from over. Always interesting, latest client educated me on the differences between Harleys, BMWs and Japanese bikes, he's a Harley guy. Never know when this stuff might come in useful.

Wednesday Feb 13

nautilus 50:00 [1]
Note
Almost an hour of shoveling when I got home. Hard work, especially doing the deck, having to throw the junk far enough to clear the railing and the bushes. Glad I've been doing the Nautilus stuff, but there will still probably be a couple sore muscles tomorrow.

Tuesday Feb 12

treadmill 32:00 [3]4.07 mi (7:51 / mi)
shoes: Montrail #2
I had given some thought to getting up early and going to the Smith indoor track, but my knee was bothering me yesterday, and still bothering me when I got up this morning, so I passed on that. But I brought my running stuff with me and by mid-morning the knee was feeling better, so I gave it a try on the treadmill. And felt not so bad.

A slow mile to warm up, then 4 x 880 at 7:00 pace with 440 at 8:30 pace in between. Time goes quicker doing this than just going at a steady pace. Good little workout.

And left me enough time to go shopping afterwards. So I'm a couple of days early. That's better than forgetting.




Monday Feb 11

nautilus 50:00 [1]
Included bench pressing the G three times, though the last rep was just barely successful.
Note
An interesting day at work, not because of the weird people but rather because of some nice clients --

First guy, a carpenter, his wife is a nurse, no kids, his utility costs run about $25 a month, yup that includes electricity and heat, he heats with wood that he cuts himself, built a water powered system up the hill from his house that generates electricity, he just buys a little propane now and then, looking to install some solar stuff this year. Very mellow, good conversation.

Then a young woman, well, not that young, probably in her 40s, not much money, makes maybe 12K as a waitress. She lives with this old farmer, maybe 75, he raises horses, I've done his taxes for years though I've never met him, the goal each year being to somehow get his taxable income down to zero, because he's quite broke, and we've managed that. And then last year, talking to her, and she's done her own taxes, and we must have been talking about retirement planning, and she says something about putting a little money in a Roth, and I find out she's been doing that for several years, so we amended the years we still could, 4 of them, got her an extra 2K or so, so this year she was in to get her taxes done too. Nice girl, pretty too, I still haven't had the nerve to really inquire into the relationship between her and the old man....

And then, well this one is not a favorite, despite what I tell her she keeps pulling money out of a retirement account and losing it at Foxwoods (a casino)....

And then a real old lady, sold her apartment house in 2006, big profit, paid lots of tax, but at least this year we got her tax bill down to zero too. Which was good, cheered her up, she's having to carry an oxygen container with her all the time, has her a little depressed, but she had pneumonia three times last year and it's doctors orders.

And then a guy who is a bus driver, hard working, does overtime whenever he can get it, wife is a bank teller, he is trying to pay down the mortgage as fast as possible. And we are going through all the possible deductions and at some point he asks about the fee for getting a passport. Nope, I say, but I ask where he's going. Lithuania, he says, that's where his wife is from. So we put the papers aside for a while and talk about that, and what it is like there (always raining the last time he was there), and how he met his wife (she was a passenger on one of his buses and they talked a bit and then he asked her out) and more about Lithuania, which I have to read up on now because he said it was a whole lot bigger a long time ago, though I did know where it was located among the other Baltic republics, from north to south it goes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (alphabetical order!), and he was duly impressed. A very nice chat....

And then a couple in their late 50s, he's had rotator cuff surgery recently, out of work for a while, she has fears of the IRS, several years ago we had the discussion about whether we were going to report the husband's moonlighting income, and she won the argument and we report it, and each year since there are looks passed back and forth, but I know we are going to report it again. She is actually a sweetheart, she doesn't care for her younger son's affinity for tattoos and piercings but is quite pleased that he is saving all his money for a down payment on a house.

And then a woman, just overjoyed that they aren't paying in this year.

And then a young couple, except they aren't married, two kids age 2 and 4, one theirs, one hers. In 2006 they were both working, making maybe 25K in all, both got good refunds (3-4K) with the EIC, but this year she earned all of $600, tried to go to college, couldn't afford it even with financial aid, he lost his job, maybe ended up making 10K. At some point I asked them, How do you survive? It's tough. Do your parents help? Nope. Wow. He still got a decent refund, but it didn't seem right to charge them even though I could see they'd brought the cash. Next year, I said, when you're doing better, and they left with a smile.

And then a guy in his 30s, auto mechanic, had him last year for the first time. He'd been going to H&R Block, they had screwed up his return, the IRS had dunned him $1800, and despite the fact that he had paid HRB extra for a "Peace of Mind" guarantee, meaning if a client had to pay more tax because of their mistake, they would cover it up to 4K. And he'd gone back to them and they'd blown him off, sorry, not our problem. And that seemed especially outrageous, so I'd picked up the phone and called up the regional office of HRB, and found someone high enough up the food chain to agree that they had an obligation and promise to resolve it. So it was very sweet to find out a year later that he'd gotten a check for $1800 from them. If it hadn't been so cold I would have asked him to come out and look at my brakes, they are starting to squeak a bit. Though I still have a few more mechanics to go....

And then the last couple, got married on New Year's Eve on top of Cadilac Mountain in Acadia NP, and so the question was whether that was a good move or not, tax-wise. Pretty sure it cost them a couple K, though we're not quite finished yet. But they seemed happy enough anyway that that didn't seem to bother them.

No drunks, no one smelled bad, a fine day.
C • Thanks for the stories! 9

Sunday Feb 10

road running 1:22:07 [3]9.63 mi (8:31 / mi)
Back roads up to Montague Center and back (route). Good test of willpower, the intent was to do this and I stuck to it. Legs felt dead, knee still a little sore, mainly towards the end. Got caught by a heavy snow squall in the last 10 minutes, glad it wasn't like that all the way.

Need to do a lot more before I'm ready to venture out with Phil.
C • training 4

Saturday Feb 9

nautilus 45:00 [1]

Friday Feb 8

road running 45:54 [3]5.53 mi (8:17 / mi)
shoes: Montrail #2
Lover's Lane loop from the Body Shoppe. Amused myself all the way up the hill thinking about weird clients. Ran harder at the time, though you wouldn't guess it by the time.

Thursday Feb 7

nautilus 35:00 [1]
treadmill 20:00 [2]2.41 mi (8:17 / mi)
shoes: Montrail #2
Not much time. Too many strange clients.
C • Well? 12

Wednesday Feb 6

road running 26:40 [3]3.1 mi (8:36 / mi)
A short trip around the local roads, feeling slow as usual, but knee not too bad. Given the slow pace, it seems more appropriate to use a different standard of measurement than the usual minutes per mile.

So on this run I focused on a good minutes per square kilometer pace and the result (26:40 for 1.047 sq. km. = 25:25 pace), which strikes me as quite decent and certainly a whole lot better than what I did two days ago. Excellent!




C • area? 34

Tuesday Feb 5

Note
Went to vote a little before 8 am, raining but lots of people, had to wait in line for 5 minutes, I was already voter #95 in our little town, maybe 2K registered voters. Being "unenrolled" I could take either a Republican or Democratic ballot. Funny that the R ballots were blue and the D ballots were red, a reversal of current practice. Felt good to take a red one and fill in the oval next to Obama.
C • Obama 5
nautilus 50:00 [1]
Knee sore from yesterday, probably overdid it, especially with the rough footing.

Monday Feb 4

trail running 55:02 [3]
shoes: Asics trail
On Greenfield ridge, white trail for the first part, then along the top to Sachem Head, back the same way. Mix of snow and ice, not sinking in far but traction only so-so, had to be careful on the sidehills and downhills.

Once again, working hard for a slow pace, but this was a longer effort than anything recently. Knee was just a little sore the whole time.

And in other news -- (1) made an appointment with a urologist for a couple weeks from now, that's good, and (2) I noticed that my t-shirt yesterday seemed a bit snug around the chest. Yikes, am I bulking up? If so will it help either my orienteering or my golf game? As to the former, my skills there have gone to hell so it doesn't matter. As to the latter, one can always hope. And as to one other pastime that I don't normally partake of, if I go to the beach, will I no longer get sand kicked in my face (not that I ever really did, I don't think....)?
Note
Election time is here. Maybe a month ago Gail and I were discussing who we might vote for and I said I hadn't decided between Hillary and Obama. At some point a couple weeks ago, as a result of the campaigning, it became very clear that I would vote for Obama.

So for any Obama supporters, be sure you vote tomorrow. Hillary supporters, make sure you go vote on Wednesday.
C • Obama 8

Sunday Feb 3

nautilus 1:00:00 [1]
For some reason I thought I should see if I could bench press 100 pounds (instead of the 70 I am doing now), so I put the pin in for 100 and lifted and it wasn't so hard and I did it nine times before that was enough. And then I thought, I wonder if I can do 1 G, just once, so I put the pin at 140 and took a few deep breaths, and slowly but surely up it went. Back down. Thought I'd see if I could do it again. A few more deep breaths, but only halfway up this time. Still pretty good. Didn't feel like I was straining anything, I hope.
C • For some reason ... 7
C • bench 3

Saturday Feb 2

road running 39:46 [3]4.7 mi (8:26 / mi)
shoes: Asics trail
Same loop as a couple of days ago, working hard and going even slower. Knee still sore, though it moves around a bit, which I will assume is good. Hopefully one of these days it will feel a little better.

The nautilus stuff has felt ok, though I'm not sure what good it is doing me.
Note
Today's tax story is not amusing or uplifting or horrifying or particularly interesting. But, as I've said before, it's my log and I can write what I want to....

A guy today, came in with his wife, they've been clients for a bunch of years though this was the first time the wife had come along, I think she was just curious. He drives a truck for a local fuel oil company, also gets called out in the middle of the night to repair heating systems, type of guy those of us who sit behind desks take for granted, and also depend upon.

We're going though his numbers, seeing what the possibilities are, and I point out that his income is down from the year before, less overtime I assume. Yeah, he said, but part of the reason for that is he was out for a while when he was operated on. What for, I asked. My prostate, he said.

So we put aside the tax papers and spent the next half hour talking about all that he had been through, his wife also an active participant in the discussion -- which doctors he'd seen and what he thought of them, the various steps along the way both pre- and post-operation. A good and very open talk, maybe here it is an advantage to being a taxman and feeling that it is ok to ask about just about anything.

I guess this is just a step in the learning process, talking and reading, eventually making decisions, maybe sooner, maybe later. I can't say I like any of it. I have always been one who, if I needed to buy something, bought the first thing I saw that seemed to meet the need (if the pants fit, get them, no need to look at 10 other pairs just to see if one might fit a little better). In this case, however, I know I need to get educated. I just don't really look forward to the prospect. And the process of getting educated is not exactly fun, because you are reminded at every step of the way what the possibilities are. As opposed to, say, the process of deciding which O' meet to go to, where all of the possibilities would be appealing.

But it has to be done. And so I may put things in this log from time to time as a way of forcing myself to deal with this, unpleasant as it is. And there has already been an upside, a couple of good e-mails from AP readers who have already been down this road. Thank you.

The truck driver, by the way, says he is doing very well. His wife concurs. And that was nice to see.

Friday Feb 1

Note
Slimming, 139
nautilus 50:00 [1]
weight:140lbs
Glad I wasn't planning on a run, as there was a mix of sleet and freezing rain and then heavy rain. Better tomorrow I hope.

So the Feb. 1 goal for the G of 139 was missed. Just too much muscle....
C • That's ok. The trend is in... 1


 

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