Guitar and cello?

Brian is all excited about doing a guitar/cello duet together. Since neither of us are musically talented enough to do composition, this ought to be very interesting.
Anybody out there want to consult on how we get this going? (I should mention that I have a very limited range of notes that I can play on the cello and I can't do any of that vibratto crap :)

Zacher Family Slumber Party

Part one of 2007 Zacher Family Slumber Party was a blast. We all participated in a tour of the Pima Air and Space Museum, a Segway tour of downtown Tucson, Sunday morning pancakes and horseback riding. It was a very busy and very fun weekend. I can't wait until part two...

My own marathon

Yesterday I went out for a long run. And I mean LONG.
You see, I ran 13 miles yesterday, the length of a half marathon. Brian asked me why I did it. That part was obvious; I wanted to see if I could. I think that has been my whole push to run that distance. Just to see if I could do it.
It takes me a really long time to run 13 miles. Way too much time to think about what I'm doing and why.
So when I got home, I was an interesting mix of happy and sad at the same time. I was happy. I mean, I ran 13 miles! I have been saying that this is the longest distance that I will ever run in my life. It's my own marathon. Sad because I realized that getting there was all the fun. I have no desire to repeat that feat in a race now. Maybe ever.
My knees are tired. I know all about muscle soreness but this is joint soreness. There is no pain but there is definite soreness. Now, if you examine my motivation to run for the last 2-1/2 years, you'll note that it has been all about health. That's why I'm jogging races instead of run-walking them, right? To be exact, it's about my health when I'm 70 or 80. I want to be doing things right now that will make me at the top of my game then. I realized yesterday that the feeling in my knees is most likely not going to be good for me when I'm 80.
I read somewhere a quote from a doctor that said if anyone is running more than a 3 mile run, they're doing it for reasons other than health. I think that he means the wearing parts of running overcome the cardio, muscular and skeletal benefits of running at around 3 miles. I think that I agree with him. Maybe the distance varies a little from person to person but I don't think you can exceed 10k distance without doing it for a different purpose.
So am I going to run longer distances than 3 miles? You betcha. Because I don't think that it is causing damage (or else I would have some kind of recovery times) for me to run 10ks. But I don't think that I'll go longer than that. I can work on my 10k time for the next 10 years and be perfectly happy. Besides, an hour out of my day for a race or training? That's something that I can live with for the next 50 years of my life.

Lost Dutchman 10k 2007

Denise and I ran the Lost Dutchman 10k today. I was so very worried about the amount of wind and the temperatures from the day before. I thought it would be a very hard day. But luck was on our side; the cloud cover kept the sun off of us and the wind was gusty but not constant.
I'm awaiting pictures from others that are smart enough to remember to bring their cameras. Until then, Steve took this on his blackberry in the car prior to the race. You'll have to wait for the picture where we look exhausted :)

Super Bowl Luck

I entered a Super Bowl pool at work this year.
I bought two squares for $10 and guess what... I won! Twice! I won $200! It made watching the game so interesting that I actually watched the whole game. Well, maybe it was actually my very cool neighbors that I drank beer and ate Chinese soups with that made it fun.

Running Socks

These are a pair of running socks that dad got me for Christmas this year. They are probably a $50 pair of socks but they are really awesome.
Somehow, they get what feels like an inch of cushion under your feet without changing the fit of your shoe. All the cushion is under your feet and the thickness of the sock gets thinner on top -- without any seams.
And what are the cool little tabs on the back? I thought they were for cushioning your heel against the shoes lip but I think that Brian came up with a better idea: they keep your sock from slipping down your heel.
These are great socks and I recommend that everyone get a pair no matter how much they cost!

9.75 Miles

Phew.
I thought I was stuck at eight miles.
I only have six weeks until I am attempting a half marathon at the Lost Dutchman (13.1 miles) and I was getting seriously worried that I was stuck at eight miles.
I'm pretty tired but thanks to my friend Lorien and her information about glucose absorption rates, I'm doing great. Maybe I'll make it after all...

Life imitating art (or Steve having a bit of fun)

Holiday Brunch

The morning after the company party, we drove up to Phoenix to have the annual Zacher holiday brunch at Gainey Ranch. Lots of really good food like always. The highlight this year for Brian was their chicken waldorf salad and for me it was the mint chocolate cookies. What a great time.

Holiday Party

Our company party was last Saturday night. I would post a picture of Brian and I but most of you already got a picture of us that night (it was our christmas card picture). So instead, I'll give you a picture of Carolyn taking a picture of me. It was a fun night with lots of good food, conversation and dancing. It's kind of nice to see your coworkers all dressed up and acting (almost) like adults.

Tucson Marathon Relay 2006

Year three of team Relative Insanity.
This year the team is only 50% relative but we had stellar substitutes to help us get through the day.
Everyone did fantastic and it was such a great day.
What a blast!

A Real Family Portrait

This is as close to a "family portrait" as this family gets. We're just not the Olan Mills kind of people.

Consider this your picture holiday card.

Turkey Trot 2006

This is me waiting for the start of the 2006 Mesa Turkey Trot. This one was a little sad because Brian couldn't run with me this year. But he did get to stand around in the cold and take pictures of me standing there like a dork. Yay!

The whole thing came out okay. I still died at mile 4 but this time I had a good reason: When I started, I saw a lady that I ran behind at the Lost Dutchman 10k last Feb. I can't believe I recognized her but she has a very distinctive run so I was positive it was her. Anyway, I asked her if she ran the Lost Dutchman and she did so I said that I was going to try to be hanging right behind her. And I did. For 3 miles. And then I couldn't. MAN, had she gotten faster or what? I guess someone did a little better training than I did this summer :)

So I did quite a bit better than last year but only in an irresponsible way. I have known for a while now that I could go a lot faster if I walk/run but I'm doing this for fitness and keeping a moderately high heart rate for a longer period of time is much harder, so it's got to be better for you, right?

Facial Recognition

Over at myheritage.com, you can upload a picture of yourself and it matches you with celebrities that look like you. I'm not sure about this, as I don't think that I resemble any of these people. Brian thinks that the Sally Field photo is 'almost eerie' in its likeness.



Just for completeness, I tried to match Sadie's face. No luck. I thought maybe Lassie would be in their celebrity database...

Eight Miles!

In three days, I have made a miraculous recovery from my head cold. So miraculous that I thought that I would try to do some running again today.

Wowee! I ran eight miles! (I keep spelling it out because it seems so much more significant that way than just typing the measly one-character 8.)

I have to say that eight miles is about twice as hard as 7.3 (my previous longest distance). I feel pretty good though. And I have a really neat fine grit of salt all over my face that I keep trying to lick off.

Now I have a step-back week (where I decrease the number of miles I run so that my body can recover) and then start stepping up again to a maximum of 10 miles! I can't believe how far I have come in the last two years. And to top it off, I am injury free so far.

The tortuga conquers!

Sick

Boy am I clever. When I posted "Jet Lag", I didn't even realize that I was using the literary technique of foreshadowing. I am so clever that I missed it until now.

Friday I flew back from Germany, in a race with the cold developing in my head. I woke up Friday and thought that my throat felt a little funny. I thought maybe it was the overload on cigarette smoke that always gets my sinuses in an uproar whenever I am in Europe. By the time I was flying over Nova Scotia, I realized that I was developing a full-fledged head cold.

Landing at the Dallas-FortWorth airport was the second most painful thing I have experienced. Second only because I had to take off again about an hour later. I kept checking to see if blood was pouring out of my ears yet but I made it home with eardrums intact.

Being sick is pretty awful. The only good thing is that I don't feel as guilty when I sleep for 12 hours, wake up just in time to go to Taco Bell and finish eating just in time to go to bed again.

Jet Lag

I got back from a one week trip to Japan last Wednesday.
I am beat.
I don't know why I do just fine heading out to any place on Earth and then die when I get back.
I mean, I spent 26 hours traveling to Misawa, Japan and I woke up the next morning feeling fine. I spent the next week going to bed at normal times and waking up at normal times. Everything was great.
Then I came home.

For some reason, now I can't fall asleep at night and can't stay awake during the day. I'm taking melatonin at night so that I can sleep but after 10 hours of enforced sleep, I wake up feeling like I need to sleep for another 10 hours.
I shouldn't be complaining, I could be sick on top of jet lag. Then I would know that I am definitely not superhero quality.

Flagstaff

This is Brian (or at least his feet) after he ran a super fast half marathon at 7000' elevation. I ran the 5k and couldn't imagine running another step. They sure don't have a surplus of oxygen up there. My lungs felt almost bruised after this one.

Optimism

When I started out on my jog this morning, it was 75.1 degrees F and 61% humidity. Hardly conditions to be ecstatic about. But this is almost 10% lower humidity and 5 degrees cooler than it has been in weeks past. Combine that with the fact that there was pretty good cloud cover and a slight cool breeze, and I was grinning.

This summer, I'm supposed to be running six miles on my long runs (Sundays). As Brian points out, I completely made up that rule. I'm not denying that. Most days for the past two months I've been lucky to eke out three miles. Today I was finally able to do 5 miles. I am ecstatic!

After two months of just not feeling so great after running, I had again started wondering about the hidden heart defects that I had that were making this so dang difficult. I was sure that the next day I went out I was going to keel over dead because there must be something wrong with me; this... shouldn't... be... so... HARD!

Today at the 4 mile mark, the sun came out, I turned so the wind was at my back (and I couldn't feel it) and I started to get hot. Really hot. My heart rate started to climb. I decided that I would not run the full six miles. But I was still smiling. Because now I remember that it does get better. I can do this. I will do this.

My, Are Those Cello Eyes?

Surprisingly, I am not the instant world-wide cello playing sensation that some would have expected of me.

When I first started playing, 20 minutes daily seemed sometimes like a very long time. I would swear that the next time I looked down, there would be blood pouring from my left fingertips and my right shoulder would be entirely detached from my body. Lately it seems that 20 minutes goes by in a blur. Often, my first notice of the clock during my practice sessions reveals that 40 minutes have already passed.

Now if I could only figure out how to keep my rosin covered fingers out of my eyes, I could continue to read music for longer than 40 minutes.