November 2010 Stats

Photo of the Day

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Running

A lot of good, hard miles run in November culminated in a pretty good showing at the FOLEPI 4-miler. Immediately after the race I slammed my knee into a wall and I've been in near constant pain since then. I can't remember a time when a non-athletic-related injury took me out this badly. It sucks.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	109.05 Mile	10	10.905 Mile
February	76.18 Mile	8	9.5225 Mile
March	84.86 Mile	10	8.486 Mile
April	83.15 Mile	9	9.23889 Mile
May	57.95 Mile	7	8.27857 Mile
June	17.98 Mile	3	5.99333 Mile
July	54.62 Mile	8	6.8275 Mile
August	65.78 Mile	9	7.30889 Mile
September	107.4 Mile	13	8.26154 Mile
October	144.087 Mile	17	8.47573 Mile
November	131.57 Mile	15	8.77133 Mile
Total	939.827 Mile	111	8.46691 Mile

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Cycling

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	34.4 Mile	6	5.73333 Mile
Pocket Rocket	48.24 Mile	6	8.04 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	35.57 Mile	1	35.57 Mile
Total	118.21 Mile	13	9.09308 Mile

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	166.25 Mile	20	8.3125 Mile
February	140.67 Mile	12	11.7225 Mile
March	508.83 Mile	18	28.2683 Mile
April	318.98 Mile	13	24.5369 Mile
May	365.89 Mile	20	18.2945 Mile
June	447.97 Mile	22	20.3623 Mile
July	390.59 Mile	19	20.5574 Mile
August	223. Mile	15	14.8667 Mile
September	146.5 Mile	17	8.61765 Mile
October	303.29 Mile	19	15.9626 Mile
November	128.21 Mile	14	9.15786 Mile
Total	3145.78 Mile	191	16.4701 Mile

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Walking

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	28.66 Mile	9	3.18444 Mile
February	51.45 Mile	16	3.21563 Mile
March	34.7 Mile	10	3.47 Mile
April	44.35 Mile	11	4.03182 Mile
May	48.75 Mile	14	3.48214 Mile
June	64.2 Mile	16	4.0125 Mile
July	56.3 Mile	15	3.75333 Mile
August	56.75 Mile	16	3.54688 Mile
September	28.84 Mile	7	4.12 Mile
October	32.1 Mile	12	2.675 Mile
November	15.9 Mile	4	3.975 Mile
Total	464. Mile	132	3.51515 Mile

FOLEPI River Trail Classic

Another Thanksgiving in Peoria means another chance to run the unique FOLEPI river trail classic. The four mile race takes place on a paved shared-use path where the final three miles are entirely gradually downhill. This makes for super-fast running. In my 3^rd attempt I set a new PR, despite the very strong headwind nearly the entire length of the point-to-point course.

Interestingly, I executed the race more like a bike race than any foot race I've ever done before. Usually that's probably not a great idea, but it somehow worked out well. I tried to start conservatively, which put me about 30-40 places back right from the gun (err, whistle). After a few hundred meters we turned into the wind and I hunkered down behind someone tall, hopping from one person to the next as speeds varied.

3/4 mile in I found myself in a bit of a conundrum in that I had moved past everyone in my group and there was a sizable gap up to the lead group... and they were also moving faster than I was. Rather than continue at my own pace I did what I wouldn't hesitate for a single second to do in a bike race, though in a running race it was unthinkable--I burned a match. I put in a huge effort to accelerate and not only stop losing ground to the lead group, but also catch back up to them. The gap was probably only about 20-30 meters, which seems fairly small. But I'd say it took more than a minute running over 12mph to close the gap. I caught up right as we passed the first mile marker (the flat mile) in 5:18. It was a bit faster than I hoped, but I was in good position. Or so I thought.

Not a moment sooner than I joined the group did we hit the downhill where the group exploded. What had been 10 guys tightly bunched together blocking the wind for me quickly turned into singles spread out across the path. I stayed behind a young guy for the next mile or so just trying to recover from my earlier acceleration. But you can't really recover running at that speed.

As we passed the 2^nd mile marker inside of 11:00 another guy came up from behind and passed us. Not really thinking in my hypoxic state I latched on behind him and took off. This guy maintained a very steady pace, which was good. I stayed glued to him, as he was running exactly the pace I wanted to be going. In the final half mile he started to waiver a bit so I moved in front of him to return the favor for him blocking the wind. He seemed to recover a bit, as he passed me with a couple hundred meters to go.

I finished in 22:05 (5:31/mile), my fastest time yet at this race. This was reassuring at a time when I've been doing lots of long runs and very little speedwork. I was 10^th overall and 2^nd in my age group (behind the guy who I ran with most of the race).

Damn squirrels

Before we moved into our new house we saw evidence of animal (probably squirrel) activity in the attic. A condition of the sale was that the hole in the soffit where they were getting in be patched and some damaged ductwork be replaced. Not long after we moved in I noticed many strange sounds in the house during the day while I was alone at home working. I assumed/hoped the critters I was hearing were on the roof instead of in the attic. This went on for some time. The noises became stranger and stranger and louder and louder. I was fairly certain something was in the attic, but I didn't know what, and part of me didn't really want to find out.

We have a pest control place that has been taking care of spiders, mice, etc. so we asked them to come take a look. Squirrels. They were in there when the guy came out. It would be $450 to remove them and patch the holes where they were getting in. This isn't unreasonable, but it's really more than we can afford at the moment. I reluctantly took it upon myself to attempt to remove them. The first time I climbed up into the attic I saw two squirrels in different places. One of them I even pinned up against the wall with a board. I could have partially ended the infestation right then and there, but I didn't have it in me to go through with it so I let the little bugger go.

The next step was to get a trap at Home Depot. I baited it with bread and peanut butter, as several people recommended online. The bread was stale and the peanut butter was organic. It was all we had. A few hours later I checked on the trap and it had been tripped, but the bait was still there and there was no squirrel inside. I reset the trap. A few hours later I checked and the bait was gone and the trap hadn't been tripped. I guess it needed some fine tuning. I tried again the next day with fresh (stale) bread and (organic) peanut butter. This time the bait was gone once again and the trap was not triggered. Grrr. I could just hear the jokes about the squirrels outsmarting me.

After a brief hiatus for Thanksgiving travels I tried again today, this time using (organic) sunflower butter with the same old stale bread. Bingo. Within a couple hours I had one of the squirrels trapped. It was freaking out. I brought the cage outside while I waited for Melissa to come home so we could take it somewhere. I put the cage inside a rubber tub A) to doubly-ensure the rodent didn't escape in the car and B) to try to calm it down a little, both of which were successful. We drove several miles to a park on the other side of town to release it. Adding insult to injury the damn thing urinated and defecated all over the inside of my rubber tub. As the gate opened it took off like a bat out of hell. Hopefully, we'll never see it again.

Now, I still have at least one other squirrel to catch. I hope that's the last one, though I suppose there could be others. I wonder how much noise I'll hear tomorrow while I work...

Where I come from we don't forget about hills like that

So it's no secret that our former hometown of Champaign-Urbana is the flattest place on Earth. For a long time I assumed most of the midwest was similar, but it most certainly isn't. Last Sunday I did a 50 mile ride with my friends Nick & Mike, along with a new guy Kurt (or is it Curt?) who showed us a heck of a route about a half hour west of the city.

We started at Matson Hill Park (any hill with a name earns my immediate respect), near Defiance, MO. Traffic was relatively light, which was a welcome change from the city. There were 10 or so good hard climbs in the 200-400 foot range, many of which were extremely steep, a few were in excess of 20%. These suckers were tough.

Aside from the big hills the route had rolling hills that dwarf anything in Champaign County almost non-stop the entire way. As we approached one of the big hills Kurt turned to the rest of us (who had never seen this route before) and said:

Oh... I forgot about this hill.

He then beat me to the top rather handily. When I eventually caught back up with him the only response I could muster was:

Where I come from we don't forget about hills like that.

October Stats

Hey, I turned 32 (0x20, 2⁵). Melissa was kind enough to build me a cake, which William promptly devoured. Okay, I helped devour it too.

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Photo of the Day

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Running

Well, I've been feeling better and better about my running for several months now and I finally took the leap from running 2-3 times per week and started running 3-4 times a week. Now, you may ask how could I run four times per week if there are seven days in a week and my cardinal rule is to not run on two consecutive days? There's no funny math here, I'm simply breaking my cardinal rule for the first time since my knee surgery in 2004. So far it's been great. It's possible I could come to both rue and lament that decision, but I've been feeling good enough lately that I probably won't.

The net affect of this change is that my mileage shot way, way up. 144 miles in one month doesn't seem like much to me for some reason, particularly considering I regularly ran 75 miles per week when I was 18. But back then I ran every day. It's kind of remarkable (even to me) that (on average) I ran 8.5 miles on 17 separate occasions.

I had a couple of decent races, both times finishing behind the same person. Perhaps I need to start training with that guy.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	109.05 Mile	10	10.905 Mile
February	76.18 Mile	8	9.5225 Mile
March	84.86 Mile	10	8.486 Mile
April	83.15 Mile	9	9.23889 Mile
May	57.95 Mile	7	8.27857 Mile
June	17.98 Mile	3	5.99333 Mile
July	54.62 Mile	8	6.8275 Mile
August	65.78 Mile	9	7.30889 Mile
September	107.4 Mile	13	8.26154 Mile
October	144.087 Mile	17	8.47573 Mile
Total	801.057 Mile	94	8.52189 Mile

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Cycling

It's pretty rare that my cycling mileage would go up in October. I got in a few good long hard rides with my friends Nick and Mike and I also did a couple of the Big Shark rides. So despite the stupid traffic I'm managing to get some riding in... perhaps not as much as in Champaign-Urbana, but the rides I am doing are on more difficult terrain.

I did one cyclocross race that was okay, but not great. I hope to do a few more before the season ends.

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	59.13 Mile	9	6.57 Mile
Pocket Rocket	24.4 Mile	5	4.88 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	219.76 Mile	5	43.952 Mile
Total	303.29 Mile	19	15.9626 Mile

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	166.25 Mile	20	8.3125 Mile
February	140.67 Mile	12	11.7225 Mile
March	508.83 Mile	18	28.2683 Mile
April	318.98 Mile	13	24.5369 Mile
May	365.89 Mile	20	18.2945 Mile
June	447.97 Mile	22	20.3623 Mile
July	390.59 Mile	19	20.5574 Mile
August	223. Mile	15	14.8667 Mile
September	146.5 Mile	17	8.61765 Mile
October	303.29 Mile	19	15.9626 Mile
Total	3011.97 Mile	175	17.2113 Mile

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Walking

It's not too cold yet, and the boy still loves going for walks.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	28.66 Mile	9	3.18444 Mile
February	51.45 Mile	16	3.21563 Mile
March	34.7 Mile	10	3.47 Mile
April	44.35 Mile	11	4.03182 Mile
May	48.75 Mile	14	3.48214 Mile
June	64.2 Mile	16	4.0125 Mile
July	56.3 Mile	15	3.75333 Mile
August	56.75 Mile	16	3.54688 Mile
September	28.84 Mile	7	4.12 Mile
October	32.1 Mile	12	2.675 Mile
Total	446.1 Mile	126	3.54048 Mile

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Scooter

That's right, I broke the scooter back out. Mostly this is simply due to logistics of getting William to and from daycare. Sometimes I run him there in the morning and leave the stroller there while I finish my run. Then when I pick him up in the evening I can't take the bike because I need to bring the jogging stroller home. So a few times I've ridden the scooter to daycare (it's almost entirely downhill or flat) then walk back with Will in the stroller and the scooter in the stroller's storage area.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	0	0	0
February	0	0	0
March	0	0	0
April	0	0	0
May	0	0	0
June	0	0	0
July	0	0	0
August	1.8 Mile	1	1.8 Mile
September	0	0	0
October	10.1 Mile	5	2.02 Mile
Total	11.9 Mile	6	1.98333 Mile

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Inline skating

That's right, I got a pair of inline skates for my birthday. Why not try something new to mix things up? Well, after numerous laps back and forth on my street I finally got up the nerve to venture out of the neighborhood and across the WUSTL campus. I didn't fall down, and I didn't hurt myself... at least one of which I half expected.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	0	0	0
February	0	0	0
March	0	0	0
April	0	0	0
May	0	0	0
June	0	0	0
July	0	0	0
August	0	0	0
September	0	0	0
October	2 Mile	1	2 Mile
Total	2 Mile	1	2 Mile

Bubba Cross 3

Having missed out on doing any cyclocross races last year (something about a newborn child and the races being three hours away in Chicago) I was excited to be closer to the action this fall now that we're living in St. Louis. I found a series of events that not only included cyclocross bicycling race, but also cross country running races. Jackpot.

Start of the women's race

On Sunday I headed southwest to Antire Park off of I-44 for the third event in the series. I showed up an hour early for the 5K XC run. They were still setting up the course and I saw few competitors. I wondered how many people were going to show up. After waiting around for 20 minutes or so I went to register for the races, only to discover I didn't bring enough money with me to pay the entrance fee. Shit.

I ran back to the car and bolted out of the parking lot, back onto the highway to the next exit where I found an ATM and made it back to the park with 20 minutes to spare. Only this time the registration line was much longer. With 10 minutes to go I finally registered and prepared my clothes, shoes, number, etc. With no warm up I toed the line with a whopping five other men (one was a small child) and three women.

Three of us stayed together for the first mile in a little under six minutes on a horribly lumpy and uneven course. One faded away as I led with another guy on my heels. I couldn't tell whether he was toying with me or struggling to keep up. As we finished the first of two laps my GPS read 1.97 miles. This was going be the longest 5K I'd ever run. Shortly into the second lap the other guy flew past me and pulled away decisively. Question answered. I slowed quite a bit on the second lap, now knowing I was running 30% farther than I had planned. I finished in second with an okay, but not great, run.

Women running over the barriers

After the run was a juniors race and a womens race, so I had a little bit of time to recover. I changed clothes, got my bike ready, and headed out for a practice lap. Oh, my, goodness. I thought the course was rough on foot, but it was nothing compared to trying to ride a bike over it. This was the bumpiest ground I've ever ridden on something other than a mountain bike. Perhaps I should have brought my MTB.

First lap of the men's B race

The "C" race was after the womens race. Despite my best intentions I ended up with a shitty starting position, which became even shittier once I started and people were passing me. In my cyclocross experience there's a very high correlation between one's position 400m into the race and their finishing position... and I was 3/4 of the way back in the field.

Jumping the barriers in the men's B race

Jumping the barriers in the men's B race

On the few smooth parts I opened up and made big gains, only to lose some of it on the more technical and bumpy sections. At one point the jarring of the bumpy ground was enough to knock the chain off the rings and I had to do some delicate acrobatics to get it back on while coasting downhill. I gradually worked my way up, passing a couple people each lap, but it wasn't fast enough. I was going nearly all out for 50 minutes, which after a hard run earlier in the day left me exhausted. I rolled across the line 18th of 41 finishers. Cyclocross, despite being very enjoyable in a masochistic way, is one of my least successful athletic endeavors, and this race was no different. Finishing in the top half of the field is about all I can hope.

Cyclocross is hard.

I'm on a bus

Well, I'm on a long ride from Champaign to St. Louis and this Greyhound bus has WiFi so I might as well use it. I spent a few days back in the office this week for the annual Wolfram Technology Conference. Mathematica 8 was officially announced and will be released next month. I actually did put a fair amount of work into this release before I refocused my efforts on mobile products a year ago. Of course, I'm having trouble remembering what my contributions to Mathematica 8 were since I've been so consumed by other projects for so long. The conference went fairly well though, and I even had a few productive days of work while I was there.

I spent the first night at our old house (which hasn't sold yet, anybody interested?) before staying the next two nights with Cara, John, and Ashlynn at my previous house. I can't seem to ever move away!

In addition to friends and coworkers I also made it to a Second Wind Fun Run and even saw one of my cycling friends randomly on the street as I was riding my scooter from the bus station to work on Tuesday. After spending so much time alone, or with just Team Ragfield, it was really great to see everyone again.

Skippo

Sunday morning I rand my second race since we moved to St. Louis, The Skippo, a 20 KM (12.4 mile) trail run at Castlewood State Park. I had heard good things about the trail running and mountain biking at the park, but I hadn't yet had time to pay a visit.

I suspected the course would be quite hilly (by central Illinois standards) and the website alluded to stairs on the course. On the first of two 10 KM laps of the trail I was both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised. First, the course was not as hilly as I expected, on the whole. Five of the six miles were almost completely flat. Second, the one mile that wasn't flat was an absolute beast. An interminable set of stairs rose 300 ft in about 1/4 mile, then a long false flat lead to steep switchbacks on the way back down.

I made a point of starting the race slow, or so I thought. I was still with a large pack in the top 10 as my watch beeped, showing 6:10 for the first mile. Damn. Little by little the pack spread out a bit. The stairs came in the fourth mile. When I reached the top I almost stopped running because the view of the Meremac river and autumn foliage was so breathtaking. No, wait, it was the stairs that were breathtaking. Anyway, I immediately started planning a hike back up here with the family, perhaps after the race even.

I hammered down the hill as fast as I could, but I still couldn't keep in contact with the guys ahead of me. I spent the next six miles by myself trying to catch back up to my former group, making little headway.

The second time up the stairs I was delighted to find Melissa & Will standing near the top waiting for me. That wasn't part of the plan, but on the bright side it meant that I didn't have to hike back up here for a third time to show it to them. Melissa had made a friend and they decided to hike up there together to see the view and watch the race unfold.

Again, I hammered down the switchbacks but continued to lose time. By the bottom of the hill another runner, the first placed woman, caught and passed me. Back on the flats I was feeling a little stronger so I stayed right with her for a mile or so. In the last mile I felt a little stronger so I surged back ahead, finishing in 1:28:19, good for 10^th overall, 2^nd in my age group.

The age group award was pretty sweet, a $10 gift certificate to Big River Running Company, which was a good deal for both of us because I ended up buying more than $10 worth of merchandise from them.

Anyway the race was challenging and rewarding. The course was both easier and harder than I expected. I enjoyed the trail, I can definitely see puttin some long winter miles in out there.

September Stats

Photo of the Day

I really phoned a lot of these in. I'm hoping once we get more stuff put away and I'm not quite as busy I can put a little more time into these and bring the quality up a bit.

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Running

So in addition to the Forest Park XC race I also upped my mileage a lot. I've been doing long runs with Melissa to help her train for the Indianapolis marathon in November. I've also been running more regularly (i.e. three times per week instead of two), probably due to the fact that I've been biking less.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	109.05 Mile	10	10.905 Mile
February	76.18 Mile	8	9.5225 Mile
March	84.86 Mile	10	8.486 Mile
April	83.15 Mile	9	9.23889 Mile
May	57.95 Mile	7	8.27857 Mile
June	17.98 Mile	3	5.99333 Mile
July	54.62 Mile	8	6.8275 Mile
August	65.78 Mile	9	7.30889 Mile
September	107.4 Mile	13	8.26154 Mile
Total	656.97 Mile	77	8.53208 Mile

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Cycling

September was kind of a throwaway month for my cycling. The only month this year I managed to ride less was one with 28 days. On the bright side I did have a good ride with my friend Nick, who moved to this area from Champaign-Urbana a year ago. Thanks to him I now know precisely one route with a fair-but-not-ridiculous amount of traffic.

September 2010 by bike

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	53.54 Mile	10	5.354 Mile
Big Red	8 Mile	2	4 Mile
Pocket Rocket	15.78 Mile	2	7.89 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	69.18 Mile	3	23.06 Mile
Total	146.5 Mile	17	8.61765 Mile

January - September 2010

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	166.25 Mile	20	8.3125 Mile
February	140.67 Mile	12	11.7225 Mile
March	508.83 Mile	18	28.2683 Mile
April	318.98 Mile	13	24.5369 Mile
May	365.89 Mile	20	18.2945 Mile
June	447.97 Mile	22	20.3623 Mile
July	390.59 Mile	19	20.5574 Mile
August	223. Mile	15	14.8667 Mile
September	146.5 Mile	17	8.61765 Mile
Total	2708.68 Mile	156	17.3633 Mile

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Walking

Once we got moved in I haven't been walking as much. I'm no longer with Will all day and I'm working at home, so I don't have many places or reasons to walk like I was doing. I mostly save it up for the weekends.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	28.66 Mile	9	3.18444 Mile
February	51.45 Mile	16	3.21563 Mile
March	34.7 Mile	10	3.47 Mile
April	44.35 Mile	11	4.03182 Mile
May	48.75 Mile	14	3.48214 Mile
June	64.2 Mile	16	4.0125 Mile
July	56.3 Mile	15	3.75333 Mile
August	56.75 Mile	16	3.54688 Mile
September	28.84 Mile	7	4.12 Mile
Total	414. Mile	114	3.63158 Mile

Forest Park XC

The first weekend I stayed in our new house in St. Louis I saw there was going to be a huge cross country race at nearby Forest Park. While the event was mostly aimed at high school runners, they had a 4K open race (2.5 miles). Having just whet my appetite for cross country at the DHS alumni race a few weeks prior I decided to run it. There aren't a whole lot of open cross country races around, so I wasn't really sure what type of people were going to show up. The answer is good runners. A lot of them.

It poured down rain all the previous day and night so the course was ankle deep water in many places. It only took a few steps of my pre-race warmup to give up all hope of keeping my feet dry. A sizable crowd lined up for the 7:30 AM open 4K and then we were off. The start was very fast and I was quite a ways back even after I started faster than I should have. The first mile was 5:32, and I slowed down from there. The second lap was a lot of back and forth, notably with a 13 year old boy and a 22 year old woman who went on to win the women's race. Around two miles in I repeated to myself "I'm too old for this shit", by which of course I meant races that short and that fast.

I finished in 14:50 (5:58 pace), 25^th overall, and I somehow managed to get 3^rd in the 30-39 age group. Despite the fact that I actually had a pretty solid race, I was a ways off the top 5-10% I would have expected for this sort of race... indicating the competition was really good.

I stuck around a short while to watch a couple of the early high school races before heading back home. It's been over 10 years since I watched a high school XC meet. It was a good time.

August Stats

Okay, so this is a little late, but I have a good excuse. We have moved and we're getting settled in to our new house in St. Louis.

In addition to everything else that was going on, I was foolish enough to migrate all my training log data for the past 10 years into a completely new software system. Right before we left Champaign-Urbana I wrote some scripts to convert all my old data into the new format. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to updating the scripts I use to generate these monthly reports so I was unable to do this August report at the end of August. Now, a month and a half later, I finally updated that code and, well, here we are.

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Photo of the Day

It was a real struggle to keep this going during the two weeks we were staying in the hotel, but I somehow pulled it off... mostly by taking crappy photos.

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Running

The running actually picked up a little in August. I tried to hit as many group (Second Wind & Buffalo) runs as I could, thinking each one could be my last. I also had a fun time racing at the Danville High School alumni cross country meet the day we left for St. Louis.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	109.05 Mile	10	10.905 Mile
February	76.18 Mile	8	9.5225 Mile
March	84.86 Mile	10	8.486 Mile
April	83.15 Mile	9	9.23889 Mile
May	57.95 Mile	7	8.27857 Mile
June	17.98 Mile	3	5.99333 Mile
July	54.62 Mile	8	6.8275 Mile
August	65.78 Mile	9	7.30889 Mile
Total	656.97 Mile	77	8.53208 Mile

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Cycling

I had a few groups rides early in the month when I somehow wasn't packing (don't tell Melissa). Later in the month I mostly rode around St. Louis with Will in the Burley.

August 2010 by bike

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	15.2 Mile	4	3.8 Mile
Pocket Rocket	80.05 Mile	8	10.0063 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	127.75 Mile	3	42.5833 Mile
Total	223. Mile	15	14.8667 Mile

January - August 2010

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	166.25 Mile	20	8.3125 Mile
February	140.67 Mile	12	11.7225 Mile
March	508.83 Mile	18	28.2683 Mile
April	318.98 Mile	13	24.5369 Mile
May	365.89 Mile	20	18.2945 Mile
June	447.97 Mile	22	20.3623 Mile
July	390.59 Mile	19	20.5574 Mile
August	223. Mile	15	14.8667 Mile
Total	2708.68 Mile	156	17.3633 Mile

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Walking

Will & I walked a lot of miles in St. Louis.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	28.66 Mile	9	3.18444 Mile
February	51.45 Mile	16	3.21563 Mile
March	34.7 Mile	10	3.47 Mile
April	44.35 Mile	11	4.03182 Mile
May	48.75 Mile	14	3.48214 Mile
June	64.2 Mile	16	4.0125 Mile
July	56.3 Mile	15	3.75333 Mile
August	56.75 Mile	16	3.54688 Mile
Total	414. Mile	114	3.63158 Mile

We-haul

Well, the move is over. Everything didn't go exactly as planned, but we made the best of it and got it done. I can't thank my parents enough for al the help packing up boxes, loading, & unloading the truck.

Now we're in the process of unpacking the dozens of boxes lying around the house.

Alumni

Back in May I ran the Danville Memorial Day 5K. While there I had a chance to catch up a little with Todd Orvis, a former standout Danville High School cross country runner and the current DHS XC coach. A few weeks ago I heard back from him about plans to host a DHS XC alumni meet in August. I was really excited about this, as I hadn't run a really short (2 mile) cross country or trail race since, well, since I was in high school.

The timing of the race didn't work out so well, since it took place the evening before Melissa's first day of work in St. Louis. Fortunately, Melissa was understanding and we worked out a way to make it happen (i.e. we left from the race and drove straight to St. Louis).

I recognized a handful of faces, mostly of a few runners a few years older than me. The current DHS, DACC, & Schlarman(?) teams were there as well as the alumni. The course was a bit more challenging (slow) than I was expecting. We would run two 1-mile loops. The first 1/3 mile was gradually uphill with a bit of a headwind to add insult to injury. The second 1/3 mile was fairly easy, though it did have a 180˚ turn. The final 1/3 mile of each loop was mostly downhill, but it was on a somewhat twisty trail through the woods where it wasn't really possible to open up and run all out.

The race started fast, which means I started fast. I gradually moved past some of the fast-starting youngsters and settled into a good pack heading into the woods for the first time. The two guys immediately in front of me slowed down a lot and let a gap open up. I couldn't get around them in the woods, so I had to wait until the meadow at the end of the lap.

End of first lap

Once around them I struggled back up the hill. I tried to catch a DACC runner just in front of me while trying to outrun the guy breathing down my neck. I managed to stay in the same position, finishing the race in 8^th, with a time somewhere around 11:54. I was hoping to run under 11:00 for two miles, but as I mentioned the course was harder than I expected (also the temperature was 85˚F). I finished just ahead of Jared Anderson (who could absolutely destroy me in a marathon or half marathon). According to the very unofficial placekeeping of my dad at the finish line we may have been the first two DHS alumni to finish. Woo. Todd Orvis finished in 10^th a short ways behind Jared. I'd like to see some official results posted Todd!

Just holding off Jared Anderson at the finish

It was fun to be back in Danville, with some familiar faces, running this type of race again. It's my understanding Todd wants to make this race a yearly event, so hopefully I can work it into my schedule in the future.

July 2010 Stats

I guess the big news is that we're moving to St. Louis. We've been traveling back and forth a lot. We found a house nice and close to the Washington University campus, Forest Park, and The Loop.

We had a fairly successful garage sale early in the month. We're gradually getting organized, packed up, and ready to move. I won't lie, it's pretty stressful. On top of that I'm once again busier at work than ever before. Let's hope we all keep our sanity in the coming weeks.

Photo of the Day

Running

Photo by Melissa

It's too hot to run, though somehow I wound up with more mileage in than last month.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	109.05 Mile	10	10.905 Mile
February	76.18 Mile	8	9.5225 Mile
March	84.86 Mile	10	8.486 Mile
April	83.15 Mile	9	9.23889 Mile
May	57.95 Mile	7	8.27857 Mile
June	17.98 Mile	3	5.99333 Mile
July	54.62 Mile	8	6.8275 Mile
Total	483.79 Mile	55	8.79618 Mile

Cycling

Photo by epon

It's almost too hot for cycling. I think the people I ride with are getting tired of the steady stream of sweat dripping off my face and flying back onto them.

August 2010 Cycling by bike

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	21.6 Mile	6	3.6 Mile
Big Red	22.9 Mile	3	7.63333 Mile
Pocket Rocket	51.36 Mile	4	12.84 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	294.73 Mile	6	49.1217 Mile
Total	390.59 Mile	19	20.5574 Mile

January-August 2010 Cycling by bike

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	278.6 Mile	43	6.47907 Mile
Big Red	49.4 Mile	8	6.175 Mile
El Fuego	40.9 Mile	11	3.71818 Mile
Lynskey	31.8 Mile	2	15.9 Mile
Pocket Rocket	266.1 Mile	13	20.4692 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	1672.38 Mile	47	35.5826 Mile
Total	2339.18 Mile	124	18.8644 Mile

January-August 2010 Cycling by month

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	166.25 Mile	20	8.3125 Mile
February	140.67 Mile	12	11.7225 Mile
March	508.83 Mile	18	28.2683 Mile
April	318.98 Mile	13	24.5369 Mile
May	365.89 Mile	20	18.2945 Mile
June	447.97 Mile	22	20.3623 Mile
July	390.59 Mile	19	20.5574 Mile
Total	2339.18 Mile	124	18.8644 Mile

Walking

It seemed like I walked more than usual, as I frequently walked to work last month whilst listening to live Tour de France coverage on my phone. I guess the previous month's trip to San Francisco added more miles than the Tour.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	28.66 Mile	9	3.18444 Mile
February	51.45 Mile	16	3.21563 Mile
March	34.7 Mile	10	3.47 Mile
April	44.35 Mile	11	4.03182 Mile
May	48.75 Mile	14	3.48214 Mile
June	64.2 Mile	16	4.0125 Mile
July	56.3 Mile	15	3.75333 Mile
Total	328.41 Mile	91	3.6089 Mile

Hello St. Louis

As you may or may not have already read, Melissa has accepted a job at Washington University in St. Louis. We will be moving to the St. Louis area in mid-August. I will continue my current job, working from home (much as I did for the year we lived in Nicaragua).

It will be a little sad to leave Champaign-Urbana where I've lived for 13 of the last 14 years. However, this job is a really great opportunity for Melissa and we're both excited to be starting a new adventure. Wish us luck.

Happy Anniversary Baby

Got you on my mind.

Here's to another nine years (after that we'll play it by ear).

Capreo Cassette Modification

Two years ago when I ordered my Bike Friday Pocket Rocket, I opted to go with the Shimano Capreo cassette/rear hub combination. This system is specially designed for small wheeled bikes (the Pocket Rocket has 20" wheels). Normal cassettes need to have at least 11 teeth. Since the Capreo system has a smaller spindle (at the end) it can go down to 9 teeth. This allows higher gear ratios on small wheeled bikes without using bigger chainrings.

The 9-speed Capreo cassette only comes in one configuration: 9-10-11-13-15-17-20-23-26 teeth. This is a fairly wide range of gears with 119.4" at the high end and 30.4" at the low end.

This is a great general purpose range of gears that will work for everything from ascending a mountain to descending a mountain. Unfortunately, I live nowhere near any mountains. Champaign County Illinois is the flattest place on earth. So I don't need all the low gears, but I would like to have a set of gears which are closer together so there's not a very big jump when I change gears.

The thing about the Capreo cassette is that the smallest four cogs are a non-standard size and they all fit together in a special way. The hub spindle is too small for cogs from any other cassette to work. So the 9-10-11-13 tooth cogs are essentially fixed. The largest five cogs are all standard sized, so I could replace all those with different sized cogs.

The first challenge is removing the Capreo cassette. Since it is a non-standard size a standard cassette removal tool won't work. Shimano makes a custom tool, which I purchased a while back (from England, since none were available in the U.S. at the time), though I haven't used yet. I whipped out the tool, positioned it on the cassette, and the instant I turned (before applying any real force) the brand new metal tool snapped.

Sigh. So now I have to replace that tool. On the bright side I happen to live four doors down from a friend who also owns a Bike Friday with a Capreo cassette. Gary was nice enough to let me borrow his (also unused) tool despite the very real chance I might break it as well. I eased into it and the tool didn't break, but it did take quite a lot of force to remove the cassette. The Capreo cassette's lock ring has large grooves which must be turned against each other to remove the cassette.

With the cassette off I was able to scavenge cogs from two other 9-speed cassettes (now that I've upgraded my road & TT bikes to 10-speed drivetrains) to produce a mutant hybrid cassette much better suited to the flat lands of central Illinois. I ended up with 9-10-11-13-14-15-16-17-19 tooth cogs. This cut the percent differences between gears roughly in half. I really wish I could get a 12 tooth cog in there because the 11-13 change is still 18.2% apart! Alas, the 13 is fixed for the Capreo cassette.

Old gears	New gears
53 35.9 % 39 9 119.4 87.9 11.1 % 10 107.5 79.1 10.0 % 11 97.7 71.9 18.2 % 13 82.7 60.8 15.4 % 15 71.7 52.7 13.3 % 17 63.2 46.5 17.6 % 20 53.7 39.5 15.0 % 23 46.7 34.4 13.0 % 26 41.3 30.4	53 35.9 % 39 9 119.4 87.9 11.1 % 10 107.5 79.1 10.0 % 11 97.7 71.9 18.2 % 13 82.7 60.8 7.7 % 14 76.8 56.5 7.1 % 15 71.7 52.7 6.7 % 16 67.2 49.4 6.3 % 17 63.2 46.5 11.8 % 19 56.6 41.6
Gear inch tables generated by the late Sheldon Brown's gear calculator

I tested out the new gears yesterday pulling Fig in his trailer. Even dragging the trailer/parachute into 25mph gusting headwinds the low gears were perfectly adequate.