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I had a really good workout today. When told Nancy I was going to go for a five mile run she suggested she would ride her bike along with me, but then decided to ride as far as where I would turn off to the bike path (about the first half mile or so) and she would then walk the track at the junior high school. I decided that I would go to the junior high with her and run on the track also. I figured it would be good to practice running at a consistent pace, and it's a lot easier to check on your progress and accuracy when you are running someplace that's measured. I ran a mile (four laps) in 8:45 and then ran another mile in 8:40. That's about my pace in the last couple races I ran but I think my legs are stronger now and maybe I can knock a little bit off in the next 5k that I run. I have never run the Downtown 5K in Providence (formerly known as Harvard-Pilgrim Health 5K, but that HMO is now defunct) in late September but I have always wanted to. It's a fairly big race, several times as many runners as most of the local 5k's that I run. I've got about seven weeks to prepare for it and I'd really like to do it at an 8 minute per mile pace (about 24:48 for the five kilometers -- 3.1 miles). That was my pace in the first 5k I ever ran, back in 1982 when I was a mere thirty-nine years old. It would be fun to see if I can still run that fast eighteen years later. Of course for years I worked at getting my times down, eventually getting a personal best time of a 6:59 per mile pace through a 5k (21:42). I doubt that I could break that record (set ten years or so ago) but I'd like to see if I could get my pace down into the mid-seven range. I got some hope for that goal when I tried some interval work... I did a lap in 1:45, jogged a recovery lap, then did a 1:42 lap. After another recovery lap I decided to run full out and see what I could do and I ran a lap in 1:32. I think I'm going to start doing a track workout once a week. I don't want to push things too far too quickly; these are, after all, fifty-seven year old knees and ankles I'm working with...
I just won some free sample Jelly Belly Jelly Beans! jellybelly.com gives away 500 free samples each day to people in the U.S. and Canada. The timing varies... I've been visiting their site several times a day for the past week or so and each time it would tell me that I was too early or I was too late, but just (in another browser window) I went there at just the right time. They ask a few survey questions, rate some possible future jelly belly flavors, if you have tried any of this years "rookie" flavors please rate them, etc. I'll have to drop Juggler Jelly Bean a quick note to tell her I won some jelly beans. One of this year's rookie flavors is cafe latte. I brought a half pound or so of them to France with me in May to set out on the table when the class turned to EJB's (Enterprise Java Beans). I had meant to get some to bring to Pittsburgh with me but I forgot. The next time I teach that course I will be delivering all of the lectures so I have to be sure to remember to get some cafe latte flavor Jelly Belly jelly beans for when I talk about java beans. The Diary History Project covers the early days of diaries and journals on the web. Early days, of course, means four or five years ago... but that's really twelve or fifteen "web years." I'm trying to pull together enough time to write a little something to send to them... well, at least I can send the URL of my first entry (September 26, 1996)... but I would like to write up a little bit of what I recall about reading journals in '95 and '96... Caroline Burke, Tracy Lee, Sage Lunsford, Ophelia OZ, etc. |