Well, on some of my shares at least 
I’m still waaaayyyyyy down on a bunch of shares I bought near the 52 week high. Thankfully, I think BAC is due for a recovery long term. I mean, hey, it’s not like there are many banks left!
It won’t be long before Bank of America is THE Bank OF America!
Got my new innerds for my computer today. Unfortunately, the motherboard didn’t come with standoffs, so I’ll need to go out and buy some this weekend. Can I use regular screws in the motherboard, as long as the standoffs are there?
Man, I hope everything is working after I get all this in. I really don’t want to spend any more money on this thing.
I was going to do a long run of 15 miles yesterday to align my last two long runs with the race day, which is a Saturday, but with the way my runs went on Wednesday and Thursday, I figured I could use an extra day to recover. That also would put a 22 miler and a 15 miler in the same week. Which would be a huge increase in mileage.
Today, I woke up ready to go, but something inside said “Don’t do it”. I still have the occasional pain in my right hip. The last thing I want to do is turn occasional pain into constant pain 2 weeks before the race.
I may try to get up extra early on Monday and try to get my run in before work. That would be a challenge. That’s assuming my hip is ok. In the meantime, I’m keeping up with the Glucosamine Condroitin and praying.
If you would all keep me in your thoughts, I would appreciate it. I’m a little nervous to have these pains so close to the race, especially after all my training.
Had to mention it. Wasn’t really a big fan of his. Don’t even think I’ve seen any of his movies start to finish. Oh well, good on him for his charitable works. He was a good actor and he’ll be missed.
Despite all my running, or maybe because of it, I don’t have all that much flexibility or strength.
I’m also concerned about all the injuries I’m having in my hip. Short of a hip replacement, I’m not sure what can be done about it. So what the heck, I’ll try yoga. Everyone’s doing it these days. I could use a change of scenery, and why not follow a trend for once instead of blindly railing against it like I usually do?
I gotta say I love Ocean State Job Lot. If anybody can undercut Wal-Mart, these guys can. Granted, these guys sell mostly crap, but it’s CHEAP crap!
So I got me a yoga mat for $4, and a yoga videotape for $1.99. Yes, that’s right, I said videotape. There are still storess like Ocean State that sell VHS tapes for people like me who still have a VCR. You didn’t think I’d shell out money every month for a Tivo, did you?
But the bonus? The tape didn’t scan at checkout for $1.99. No no no. It scanned at a cool $0.75. Heck yeah I love getting a bargain!
I went through the first 1/2 hour lesson this morning and wow. I feel like I got my butt kicked, but in a good way. Heck, the pain in my right hip feels better already!
I never thought I’d see myself doing yoga. The whole thing just seems the complete antithisis of macho. Don’t even get me started on the whole mother earth worship thing (heck, the company putting out this stuff is “Gaiam”!) Actually trying yoga didn’t do anything to change my opinion. But if it helps me with my running, I’m willing to look a little silly.
Time will tell.
Wow. This was a slow run, and I didn’t plan it this way. I guess I’m still recovering from my 22 miler on Sunday. This time, I only took 2 days off to recover instead of 3, and I think it’s affecting me. I’ve got a little pain in my right hip, which I think is what I injured last year. Man, I hope this doesn’t become one of those permanent injuries. I don’t know what can be done about it. Maybe more stretching? I already stretch for close to 30 minutes before I run! 
So say a prayer for me ok? For healing and good judgement.
I’m in a little pain from this run, especially in my hip area, which gave me trouble last year.
I certainly didn’t break any speed records this time out. All my miles averaged just over 10 minutes. I guess I’m still recovering from my 22 miler on Sunday. 
This was the first run I did with my new (to me anyway) Garmin Forerunner 201. I got a little tired with my 101 eating AAA batteries like they were candy. I actually had it run out of power in the middle of a run. The thing also started switching off for no reason, and one time it literally froze up like a PC. I couldn’t even turn the thing off! I had to crack the thing open and remove the batteries to “reboot” the thing! That was enough for me. I would have thought my Garmin 101 would have lasted at least a few years more, but that’s American manufacturing for you.
It took me awhile to get all the settings on my Garmin Forerunner 201 the way I like them, and I’m not entirely happy with it’s sensitivity. I don’t know how it’s possible, but my 201 is even worse at getting a signal than my 101 was. On this run, it lost the signal for a full half mile! That, of course, screwed up my lap times I guess I need to run where there’s no trees?
So I broke down and went to TigerDirect.com the other day and ordered an XFX MG-610i-7059 GeForce 7050 Socket 775 Motherboard, an Intel Pentium Dual Core E2200 Processor 2.20GHz, new CPU fan and a 2GB stick of Crucial 2048MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory. Yeah, it’s not exactly a Cray or Deep Blue, but it’s certainly a step up from the Pentium 4 at 3.0GHz I was running before.
So I’ll have some more surgery to perform in the next few days. I really didn’t want to have to do this so close to the marathon. The last thing I need are distractions.
Keep me in your prayers folks!
Memo to self: If something regarding your PC is “good enough”, DON’T FUTZ WITH IT!!! I need to have this tatooed on my forehead backwards so I can see it every morning in the mirror.
Like an idiot, I ordered a new motherboard off eBay. It was a pain in the butt to find a motherboard that had at least 4 PCI slots. Yes, that’s PCI slots. Not PCIx2 or PCI express. Just plain old PCI slots, the kind that were popular around the same time as grunge.
My “new” motherboard arrived, and like a bigger idiot, I started ripping things out of my computer without first inspecting the new motherboard. Well, sports fans, it turns out that my Nvidia graphics card uses an AGP slot, not a PCI slot. Guess what my new motherboard doesn’t have?
Like a bigger idiot still, I pressed on, installing my “new” motherboard (which was advertized as new, but was sure dusty for a new one). I got the CPU and fan installed, the RAM, the hard drives, the CD ROM drives and the power supply hooked up. I closed up the box and attempted to plug in my monitor to the motherboard.
Hmmmmmm. There’s no VGA connector?!? I don’t know what this mobo had, but it sure didn’t fit my monitor cable!! That killed it. I said “The heck with it” and just left the thing there (I’m typing this on my old laptop as we speak ).
I’m not buying another Dell that’s full of proprietary crap that I’ll have to throw out in 3 years and start over. No thanks. The case is still fine. The hard drives are still fine. The CD/DVD drives are still fine. I may have to check out TigerDirect.com.
Stay tuned…
BREAKTHROUGH!! After a one month absence from long runs and almost another month of consistently NOT reaching my goals for long runs, this is exactly what I needed.
I’ll admit a lot of things went into my favor this time out. My training was going well. The weather was dry and cool, and I made sure to keep a positive attitude throughout.
I will say this though, I no longer recommend eating a bunch of pasta the night before a long run. Last night I had a lot of pasta and bread. By mile 13 I had to poop like crazy! Not really wanting to squat in the woods (the folks here in suburban Connecticut are a little uptight about that), I got lucky and found a portable toilet at a construction site on my route. As I hobbled over to it, I kept praying pleasebeunlockedpleasebeunlockedpleasebeunlocked. Thankfully it was. Of course, my biological break added to my time, but hey, I’m ok with it; and after my poo, my running went much better!
There were times when I thought I wasn’t going to make it, but that little voice inside me kept saying “If you quit now, you are never going to forgive yourself. This is the longest long run of your training. If you don’t go the distance now, then when will you do it? The race is in 3 weeks!” That kept me going. That, and my memories of last year’s marathon, when I had a labrum injury, and had to walk the 2nd half in pain.
As last year’s marathon route took me through my old stomping grounds, I saw a bunch of folks on the sidelines cheering us on, even though we were waaaayyyy in back. Some were veterans. Many of those people were in wheelchairs, some did not even have legs. I knew that, as much pain as I was in, any of those folks would trade places with me in a heartbeat. I knew I had to continue the race no matter what. If not for me, then for them. If I don’t, I waste the gift I’ve been given. It’s been almost a year since that race, but I remember that very clearly.
Hopefully, I’ll see those same folks on the sidelines this year, and I hope to turn in a better performace!
P.S. I took my first ice bath after my run today. Yeeeeaaaaooouuuuuch!
