Belle Isle Fun Run

Well, today I ran the 38th annual Belle Isle 4 Mile Fun Run and the kids (along with a couple of the neighbor kids) ran the 1 Mile kid run as well.

It was a nice day for a run (considering the date) - about 32 degrees at race time (3PM for the kids, 4PM for the 4 mile run), overcast and no real wind to speak of.

My son ran a very excellent 7:35 in the mile, which was much better than his goal and he came in 10th overall, so that was awesome!

My daughter ran with her two friends, one of whom wasn't feeling very good, so they didn't have a good time but they enjoyed the run (and I *love* the fact that my daughter is willing and able to do this - I can't even imagine having done a 1 mile run when I was her age!)

I ran a very satisfying 29:27 for myself - about a 7:21 pace, so I was very happy with that. Based on my ForeRunner, I ran a 7:14 first mile, then a 7:26, 7:27 and finished with a 7:22. Very nice and even. I am very, very happy with my performance today.

Now the next road race will likely be the Super Bowl Sunday run I ran a few years ago. Not sure when that will be, though.

My new professional blog

I've started a new blog in my own domain (leeromero.org) with the intent of it being a more professionally-focused blog where I will write about my experiences in and thoughts about the area in which I work.

Check it out!

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas (to me!)

I recently celebrated a birthday and, as a personal celebration of sorts, managed to get in a 9 mile run on my birthday. Happy birthday to me! :-) That was the longest run I've had since, I think, about 1990.

I entered Christmas week thinking my recent run (pun intended) of good weeks might be at risk due to the holiday, family, etc. I did "miss" a run for the week (running only 4 times instead of what's become my recent norm of 5 runs) but, with my 9 mile run, two 6+ mile runs and a 5.5 mile run yesterday (at my wife's fitness club), I put in just under 27 miles on the week, which was another "longest week" for me - my 10th week in a row of getting longer. Obviously, that's always an indication of "quality" but I have been so happy about my runs of late.

As for Christmas - among other cool running-related items, my wife bought me a Garmin ForeRunner 305 - a running watch with a built-in GPS locator! I was stunned as I didn't even know such things existed. Now I'll have the most anal-retentively analyzed runs of anyone who really isn't all that good at running. Running with both the NikePlus and the ForeRunner, I can at least have a couple of ways to know how long I'm running.

I was so excited about the ForeRunner, I had to go out on Christmas Day for a run and put in just over six miles. I also realized (duh...) that the ForeRunner doesn't work so well on a treadmill :-)

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to do a local road race - the 38th Annual Belle Isle New Year's Eve Family Run Run / Walk. It's a 4 mile run that also features a 1 mile run for the kids to take part in (and all kids get trophies, which is what's motivating them to want to take part). We'll see how that works out.

The last week in Running

Last week saw an increase in use of the treadmill and a decrease in motivation. Man, it seems much harder this year to do the runs on the treadmill than it has in past years.

Last Sunday, though, I did get out for my new longest run (well, longest since my long-ago college days when I ran much more than I do now)! I ran a bit over 8.5 miles last Sunday on a nice route around the "big square" as I named the route in my Nike+ web site. I happen to live in an area broken into nicely sized squares, each 1 mile on a side. For a number of years, my "long run" each time I did it was to do the single such square I live next to - a bit over a 4 mile run. Last Sunday, I did the outer perimeter of four of those plus a bit more. It was a great run and I was so happy to be outside!

This Sunday I did my long run on the treadmill and it was a real challenge getting to 7 miles :-(.

I continue to mentally struggle with the odd behavior of my Nike+ on the treadmill - since I calibrated it, it seems that it still tracks about 10-15 seconds / mile slow on the treadmill, though on the other hand it seems like it tracks about 10 seconds fast outside. That means when I'm on the treadmill trying to maintain a pace that I am happy with, I'm probably running about 15-20 seconds faster per mile than I would be to achieve the same feeling outside.

Anyway - last week was another "longest week" for me - 25.96 miles - and my 8th such week in a row (the last time I didn't set a recent personal best for long week was the week just before the Detroit Marathon where I rested toward the end of the week).

My Kids - the smart ones in the family!

My son came home Friday with his trimester report card and did a great job this term - He had 3 A's and 3 A+'s for the trimester! Great job for him!

He also got all "O's" for behavior, which means that he's earned himself a field trip to see a movie with the other "all O's".

My daughter hasn't yet gotten her report card, but I know she also is as capable. Of course, her (elementary) school is soon going to transition to a grading system where anyone with a 70%+ average will receive a "P" (performing). There is apparently no higher rating. How motivating for the more capable kids, huh? As I like to say - they propagate the cult of mediocrity - No one can stand out and no one's accomplishments are to be individually celebrated.

A Dark Week in Running

So, this last week I had to continue doing most of my running on my treadmill. Dark and dreary in the basement (well, not all that dark, but boring to look at!).

I also continued to be annoyed by the discrepancy between the treadmill and my iPod. As I mentioned last week, I took a mile last Sunday to calibrate it, but it doesn't seem to have affected it much - it's still off. But, on the positive side of things, despite having to run most of the days on the treadmill, I did manage to get outside Friday and run a bit over 6 miles. It was good. I also ended up with yet another weekly high for me on the Nike+ - just about 25.85 miles, up from about 25.1 a week earlier.

Today, I managed to get out just about noon for my weekly long run - though I'd heard that we were due for some sleet and freezing rain. Luckily, I think I got out early enough to avoid that, though there was a bit of snow about. I got in a very good 8.55 mile run, which is my longest on the Nike+. Yeah! I also felt very good, though the last mile was a bit tiring!

5K, Templars and Treadmills

Well, I ran the Reindeer Run 5K yesterday and it was a good time (and I had a good time). It was a pretty chilly 18 degrees at race time. I managed to get pretty close to the front - I think there were probably about 500-600 people in it as it seemed pretty large, so I didn't want to get "stuck "as I did at the start of the Turkey Trot.

I managed a pretty decent race and, most importantly, accelerated into the last mile, so I feel like the numerous longer runs have really helped in that regard.

In other news, yesterday I finished The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury. A decent read but it sure did feel like a first novel (I think it was Khoury's first). I thought the end was a bit of a cop out after the way the "mystery" of what the characters were looking for was revealed.

And, today I hit the treadmill again after a few days back outside. Was planning to do a longer run (probably 7-8 miles) but got to 5 and was aggravated by the inaccuracy of my Nike+ on my treadmill, so at 5 I decided to try to calibrate my Nike+ with a mile run. I did that but didn't realize that mile didn't "count" for my runs. Stupid thing :-/ I was going to go another mile but was too irritated. Now I'll need to do a longer run during the week at some point.

Back outside (at least temporarily) and good runs!

So, after hitting my treadmill Monday due to a combination of dark, cold and (mostly) bad weather, my last few runs have been back outside. It's always a bit off-putting to run in the dark, I'll say, but I still prefer that to the treadmill for some reason.

Tomorrow I am running in a 5K when the temperature is supposed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 16-20 degrees. Brrr... In preparation, I did a shorter run last night and tried to push a bit and had a great run. Feeling good for tomorrow!

The kids are thinking of doing a 1K that is associated with the race, but we'll see how the cold effects that decision. :-)

Hit my treadmill for the first time in about 7 months

Well, today was the first day since early last spring that I was forced to run on my treadmill this winter (well, late fall anyway). I've always much-preferred running outdoors, but when we flip to standard time from daylight-savings time (so it gets a lot darker earlier) and the sidewalks start to get slick, I end up needing to do my workouts in a safer, though much more boring, environment.

So down to the treadmill I go.

The interesting thing is that I had the treadmill set at a relatively-normal pace for myself, and it felt "right" compared to how I would feel outdoors, but my Nike+ was measuring it "short" - that is, it was measuring probably about 0.02-0.03 miles short each mile I ran and the pace reported by my Nike+ during the run was consistently about 10-15 seconds slower than the treadmill and my body were telling me I was going. Bummer.

I'll have to figure out if I need to calibrate the thing for my treadmill, I guess.

Longest Run Yet!

Today I ran my longest run, yet (well, I should say the longest run since I was in college many years ago) - 8.32 miles. Not all that fast, I have to say, but I'm happy to have pushed myself to another personal best this week.

I'm planning to run a 5K next Saturday, so gotta get ready for that, now! :-)

Running a lot more these days

So, I haven't posted much lately, but not for lack of things to write about in general.

One specific thing of note lately is that I've been running a lot more than I have in many years. What's changed? Well, for starters, I got a group of my friends together this year to do the Detroit Marathon in October as a relay team. I told them originally that, because I figured I was the most regular runner of the bunch, I'd volunteer to do the long leg - which was going to be about 7 miles. I've been a regular runner for years but always kind of stuck around the 3-4 miles/run about 3-4 times a week - so I'd normally do about 12-14 miles in any week.

I knew I had to start running more to get ready.

The second major thing that happened this year was that my wonderful wife and kids got me a Nike+! I'd seen ads for it for months and kept mentioning it to my wife and on Father's Day I got not only a Nike+ but also a new Apple iPod Nano to go with it to replace the 2nd generation iPod I'd killed earlier this year!

The Nike+ has had the most significant effect I can imagine on me and my running! It measures and times all of my runs and allows me to see a history of things, look at runs by week, month, etc. It's really a great product that I can't recommend enough to anyone who runs (I wish I knew more people who used one).

In October, I ran the Detroit Marathon Relay - a 7.4 mile leg that my Nike+ measured at about 7.53 miles - and every week since then, I've been doing one "long" run a week of at least 7.5 miles. My longest so far has been an 8.25 mile run a couple weeks back.

I've also been pushing myself to run longer weeks - the week of the Marathon, I ran a total of 20.42 miles and have been increasing each week a bit since, culminating this week in running a total of 24.28 miles (including the 10K I ran yesterday).

I've also added the Nike+ widget to my blog (did that months ago) so it's possible to always see my last five runs if you want.

All is not good, though. In June of this year, just days before I got my Nike+, I injured my knee playing in an outdoor soccer game. I finally got an MRI in September and it turns out I apparently tore a tendon. I still need to have that attended to, but the weird thing is that it doesn't really bother me while I run. Go figure...

Guidelines for a taxonomy

Patrick Lambe recently posted some guidelines I had posted to the TaxoCoP to his own Organising Knowledge blog. I had been looking for others' insights on what might be good/bad or missing from these (or possibly unnecessary).

Ran the Detroit Turkey Trot 10K today!

I had a great run today and I'm very happy for it!

Ran a 48:35 10K as Nike+ measured, and the course was 6.35 (where my time was 49:37). I'm very happy with the time as it's the first 10K I've run in many years.

Soccer updates

Well, seeing how it's been so long since I've posted, I've played a few seasons with my soccer team.

Since I last posted, I played a full summer season with a house team at the Soccer Zone. Turns out that the summer seasons are quite a bit more competitive, probably because only the "hard core" teams play. We ended up playing against teams that were much better and lost all of our games.

Last fall, back with the regular team, we actually managed to win 2 games, which was a big improvement for us. Of course the team we beat was, um, not so very good and we beat the same team in both games that we won.

In my most recent season, which ended a week ago yesterday, we actually won 4 of our 8 games! It was quite an achievement for us and was a combination of getting a few new (better) players on the team and also a significant improvement for those of us (myself included) who are still learning to play.

We started the third session last night with a loss to the team that is pretty much the same team I played on the house team with last summer. We played better against them then we have, but still need to improve.

If you look at our performance over the last several seasons, here's the goal differential from our first season to our most recent full season:

W05-06 S2	Average - Team Score	1.25
	Average - Opponent Score	9.5
W05-06 S3	Average - Team Score	3.13
	Average - Opponent Score	6.5
W06-07 S1	Average - Team Score	3.13
	Average - Opponent Score	4.25
W06-07 S2	Average - Team Score	2.5
	Average - Opponent Score	3.38

As you can see, we've steadily improved our goal differential each season - from more than 8 in our first season (ouch!) to less than 1 in our most recent season!

What has Lee been reading for the last, oh... 7 months?

So it's only been, what, 7 or 8 months since my last post, right? I'm sure you're wondering what on earth I've been reading, right?

Well, here you go!

I can't remember the order of everything, exactly, but I know when I last posted I was about to read Time's Eye. I ended up enjoying that book quite a bit.

The others:

• One of my favorites (yes, I'm a kid at heart): Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. This is the second in a series of books that are essentially an alternate telling of the Peter Pan story. Very good and a pretty quick read. Another suggestion from my son.
• Another recommendation from my son, which I felt was far too much like just a set up for a continuing series, though it was still fun, was Monster Blood Tattoo by D.M. Cornish.
  
• Mammoth by John Varley. I've really enjoyed a lot of Varley's work in the past (I especially liked the Gaean Trilogy and Red Thunder). I also liked this one a lot. An interesting twist on time travel.
  
• I've been traveling a lot more than normal in the last year, so I've read a few of what I think of as "airport crap" - books I normally wouldn't read but they are common in the airport bookstores and are usually a light read. Lately, that would include Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston and Map of Bones by James Rollins. A few years ago, I read The Codex by Preston and didn't realize Tyrannosaur Canyon had the same characters until I was a hundred or so pages in. Whoops. I still enjoyed it in a this-is-kind-of-a-dumb-story kind of way. As for Map of Bones - it was so similar in structure to The DaVinci Code that I couldn't believe it. Still, a fun read and I enjoyed it enough to put a few other books by Rollins on my Amazon Wish List.
• Next, a few "serious" sci-fi books: Darwin's Children by Greg Bear and Transcendent by Stephen Baxter. Darwin's Children was the second (I think) in a series about a set of mutations sweeping through the human population very quickly. An interesting read and I enjoyed it. Transcendent was the third in Baxter's "Destiny's Children" series, which have all been typical Baxter story lines - long term evolution and growth of humanity coupled with a more straight up "space" sci-fi component.
  
• I've also returned to an author I haven't read in a very long time - David Eddings. I read a lot by him about 20 years or so ago and always enjoyed the books. I just read The Elder Gods which is book one in his series The Dreamers. A very light read (after some of the heavier stuff I've been reading), almost to the point of not being interested. The characters were all just a bit too stereotypical for me. Which doesn't mean I won't read the rest of the books now, of course :-)
• For Christmas, I asked for Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz upon a recommendation from a co-worker. I really enjoyed the book, though it was another odd story - a man who could see dead people, but as the character says, "I do something about it!" A good build up over the course of the book to what you expect to be a really cataclysmic ending, which it almost is. An interesting twist, too, which seems obvious after the fact.
• Last but certainly not least, is Lamb by Christopher Moore. This was suggested by the same co-worker who suggested Odd Thomas to me. I have to say that I have never laughed so hard reading a book in my life. I also thought Moore did a great job combining parts of biblical lore with some more historically-based parts of the story. I can not recommend this book enough for anyone who likes a good laugh and isn't easily offended by someone painting the life of Jesus in such a down-to-earth kind of way.

Hopefully, my next posting won't be quite so long in the future!

Wow, it's been a while since my last update, huh?

It's been a long time since I've posted - so long that every time I thought about posting, I thought, "Gee, it's been so long, I don't think I can catch up!"

Well, here I am again, finally. I'm going to post a series of things with updates from the last few months.

First - my reading since my last post.

I finished The Mask of Atrues - It was quite an enjoyable, if not entirely unpredictable read. I'd recommend it for anyone who enjoys the genre.

My next read was Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. I picked this up in the book store based on the description and some blurbs. I had high hopes - unfortunately, a bit too high. It was very (!) long and a lot of it didn't seem to be progressing the story. Not necessarily bad but I kept thinking, "When are we going to get to the exciting parts?" "When are we going to get to the mysterious reason the "Amarantin" (a race of aliens) were destroyed??? " Well, it turns out that we got there about 30 pages before the end of the 580+ book. Also, the captain of one of the space ships had some strange virus that forced his crew to keep him frozen. Descriptions and passages of the book about him took up WAY too much considering the relatively minor role he ends up having in the end.

Way too much build up with a payoff that just fizzled in my mind. Not recommended.

I finished that book on a trip and ended up picking up the 10th (!) book in the Terry Goodkind series about Richard Rahl. This has become another one of those (like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books) that seems like it's never going to end. This one, at least, has some interesting reading. The book was Chainfire . I enjoyed it (like I've enjoyed all of these books - much lighter reading than the Jordan books and not *so many* characters that you can't remember who's who from one book to the next), but it was a bit long-winded in parts. Several sections of the book could have dropped pages without significant change in the story; for example, several places where Richard ponders some particular issue go on and on and on and on and on...

For fans, a must-read, though.

Next up, another one suggested by my son - Maximum Ride. This is a book by James Patterson, who I've never read but appeals to me in the if-I-needed-a-book-in-the-airport-I'd-buy-one kind of way. The book is targeted at a younger audience, and the writing style was very brisk - 2 page chapters with a page in between generally meant you'd move through pages about twice as fast as any other book. Still, I enjoyed it and, while I probably won't read the next one (my son is looking forward to it), I'd recommend it even if you don't have kids. For "tweens", I think it's a very good read.

Have just finished that book last night, I'm now about to start in on Time's Eye - by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. I've read several books by Baxter - I've enjoyed them mostly but often find the endings not completely satisfactory. I haven't read anything by Clarke. I'll let you know how it goes!

April 2006 Reading!

Been very busy late reading. In my last update on what I'm reading, I had just started reading The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime. I finished that about a week and a half ago and really enjoyed it. Jasper Fforde has a real funny and unique way of combining stories you know as "real" with the detective genre. I really enjoyed the murder-mystery about Humpty Dumpty in this and it kept me guessing. Highly recommended.

Since then, I've been reading a couple of recommendations from my son - first, Ulysses Moore: The Door to Time was entertaining but felt a LOT like it really should have been like the first quarter of a full book. Trying to stretch it out into a series like I haven't seen before...

The second, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, was a much better book and I really enjoyed the combination of the classic Greek mythology stories with a kid-oriented contemporary story line. It felt like it would really appear to a lot of kids for a lot of reasons. I'd recommend it to any 10 year old boy :-).

I'm just about to start a new book I picked up kind of at random at Border's this past weekend - I hadn't planned to get it, but picked up the paper back in the store and thought it looked interesting - it's titled The Mask of Atreus and from the blurb on the back sounds a whole lot like The DaVinci Code. We shall see.

April Catch Up

Once again, it's been longer than it should have been since my last update.

Not quite as much going on as the last update, but some news of late:

• I've played 2 soccer games with my team (we had Easter Sunday off). I managed to score a goal and had a beautiful assist in our April 2nd game. Unfortunately, they were both in the last 3 minutes of the game and we ended up losing 3-7 anyway :-(.
• In our last game (against the best team in the League again for the second time this season), we had a great first half but due to a shortness in numbers of subs, we fell apart a bit during the second half. Still improving.
• My daughter's U-9 soccer team has started practicing and they have their first game this Saturday. She's doing really well in practices (she seems to have been practicing dribbling in the off season when no one was watching or something) and I'm looking forward to the season for her.
• My son's expressed interest (now that three of the four of us are playing soccer) in playing soccer again - he played one season when he was a kindergartener but since then hasn't been interested. He also has expressed interest in lacrosse (yikes!)
• I went to the Middle School orientation for my son - who'll be going to middle school next year. Sounds scarey - they talked a lot about how much the kids change during this period and I'm not really looking forward to it.
• Played a couple games for my GLWL season. Overall, having a crappy season. I lost the first of the two, but had a great comeback in the last turn of the game. I had a tie in my second of the two games (my third game of the season) but only because I again had a great last turn. I gotta get me a new general, I think.
• My mother came to visit a few weeks ago - always good to see her and the kids were excited, as they were about my mother-in-law coming this past Sunday for Easter.
  
• The scandal-of-the-week is that one of our favorite trees was chopped down without warning by the city. GRRRRRR... They claim it was an ash tree (it was maple) and it had the Ash Borer (it didn't). I'm so mad I can't even believe it!
  

That's about it for now.

More later (and hopefully sooner!)

Busy night!

Tonight, I got home from work a bit after five in order to be able to go for my regular run before a 6 o'clock conference call. Ran about 3 miles and then sat through the conference call all sweaty :-/

Then at 7, I had soccer practice - it was a good session and I just need to continue practicing dribbling the ball! Legs tired at this point, though!

Got home from there and found out my neighbor (he of the mighty home improvement prowess) wanted to see "V for Vendetta" at a 9:55 showing - so we went and I thought it was great! By this point, after sitting for two hours in a theater chair, though, my legs have locked up! :-)

Tomorrow, we have the "Dad's Dinner" for my kids' school - an annual fund raiser for the PTA. Busy, busy, busy!

Reading these days...

I (finally) finished Broken Angels this past weekend and have now started the latest book I have by Jasper Fforde - The Big Over Easy : A Nursery Crime. So far, I'm really enjoying the new book - same silly kind of plot lines as the Thursday Next books but now about nursery rhymes!

As for Broken Angels - I did not like it as much as the previous storey in the Takeshi Kovacs series (Altered Carbon). Where Altered Carbon was an interesting combination of the "hard-nosed detective" book and a sci-fi storyline about being able to download yourself into other bodies, Broken Angels was about the same main character but primarily focused on hard-to-decipher plots around trying to claim an alien species artifact. A slow read...

Here's hoping that The Big Over Easy is a step up!