Batgavin and the Trail Bandits

Yet another sure sign that Fall is coming, we went shopping for a Halloween costume for Gavin today. He's into Batman at the moment (the old 1960s Batman - pow, kaboom and "holy camp comedy") and wanted to be the caped crusader. Here he is posing with "Trail Bandit Daddy" and "Catwoman Mummy" (boo hiss).
Here's another thing I learned today - Gavin really loves ice baths. Ever since he discovered them last week he's been wanting to try another one. The opportunity arose today because I felt a little stiff on this morning's run after yesterday's fast 20 miler (plus I seem to have misplaced my stick). Gavin was excited and jumped in the bathtub with me right after we added the ice - and he stayed for the entire 20 minutes. I swear that boy just doesn't feel the cold - I needed a big mug of hot chocolate to help me stay put.

Holy ice cubes Batgavin!!!

The Lucky Streak Continues

Within the past few months I have been on a red hot lucky streak. First I won a Nintendo Wii at a work convention (though I'm not really a gamer and have only used it once), then a copy of Dean Karnaze's new book (which I've nearly finished reading). Today I got an email from Ed at Trail Running Soul to let me know that I'd won the audiobook version of the same Karnaze book. Great stuff - I've been meaning to experiment running with an audiobook on my ipod for a while. Now I have no excuse.

A few months ago I tried out a new brand of road shoes - the Asics GT-2120 - and I loved them. They replaced my beloved Reeboks that didn't seem to work for me anymore. The only problem is that they are last year's model and have been replaced by the GT-2130. Now, the new model is very similar, but costs around $90 whereas I got the pair of 2120s for around $50 (if you know me, you know I don't like to pay full price for anything). I could have kicked myself for not buying another pair at the time, especially since I now have nearly 300 miles on these and will soon need more. I've been trying to find some online in my size (9, 4E wide) and at a good price for a while now, all to no avail. Well, this morning my lucky streak saved me as I think I found the last place on the internet that carried them in my size, along with an extra 20% off coupon which netted me two pairs of one of the best running shoes of the last few years for $104 shipped. How lucky is that?

And my new thinkpad arrived last night (which is what I'm typing this on). I pulled the hard drive out of the ancient laptop, popped it into here and installed linux on it. The machine is in perfect shape and does everything I need it to, so I'm happy - I got a great deal. Even more happy when I was able to fix the heat problem on the other laptop by simply removing the battery (which was old and didn't hold a charge anyway). That means I now have two working laptops that run really well. No more Mrs Welshrunner throwing me off to check her email!!!

To top it all off, here's a clear sign of Fall coming (other than the spectacular blood red sunrise this morning). I went to HEB this afternoon and discovered they have my favorite beer in stock again - Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale. They have it each year in the run up to Halloween and it's super yummy beer - like drinking pumpkin pie. My perfect Fall meal is a nice warming soup with homemade Italian bread washed down with some of this stuff - wonderful. If you live anywhere they sell it, you've gotta try it.

2008/2009 Training Season - Week 5

Saturday 9/27/08
road - 20 miles. Done - 2:47:46 (8:23 pace). Ran 10 miles by myself and 10 with my group

Sunday 9/28/08
trail - 6 miles. Done - ran Kens with Roger, Ben and several others. Untimed.

Monday 9/29/08
trail - 6 miles. Done - ran Kens with Shawn and James. We blasted it in under an hour. Started off with sore legs from the weekend but they eased off the more we ran.

Tuesday 9/30/08
road - hill repeats. Done - ran hill repeats on Frontier Tr in Round Rock. Did 6 forward and 2 backwards.

Wednesday 10/1/08
Rest

Thursday 10/2/08
Rest - taper

Friday 10/3/08
Rest - taper

The Ups and Downs of the Sock Market

For the last month, I've been putting several models of Drymax running socks through their paces. How would they hold up against my current favorites - the Balega Trail Busters and the Wrightsock Double Layer? Let's find out.

Disclaimer : I did not purchase any of the socks in this review - Drymax sent me samples from their range to review free of charge. This has not influenced my review, but I feel I have to mention it

Drymax Reviews
Most of the Drymax range are equipped with top or bottom air vents designed to work in conjunction with the venting systems of the majority of modern running shoes - a feature that is very much appreciated in hot weather!!! This, together with a seamless design and a dual fiber lining helps to prevent blisters by repelling moisture and wicking it away from the foot. When I got them, my first thought was that they looked way too small, but the sock stretches beautifully to encase your foot and I didn't have any problems in this regard at all. Another nice feature is that the sock name is woven into the top of the sock - a small thing, but a godsend when you have several pairs in the laundry.

Drymax Running : nice thick socks - a little too bulky for my road shoes (which are fitted for use with thin socks), but if you like a looser fitting shoe they are a good choice. In fact, they worked really well on the trail with my larger trail shoes. Comfortable and durable, I will be keeping a pair in my drop bag.
Rating : 8 (tested on trail and road)

Drymax Lite-Mesh : thinner than the Running model, but still a little thick for my road shoes. I also have to question the durability - my wife and I each wore a pair at my son's indoor play afternoon. After two hours of walking around on carpet without shoes, she had worn a big hole in the heel of one of hers, though mine were fine. To be fair, I have tried to replicate this problem at home by wearing them around the house and have been unable to. The other two pairs are still going strong and they are very comfortable.
Rating : 7 (tested on trail, road and treadmill)

Drymax Hot Weather Running : a great thin sock that fits perfectly with my road shoes. I don't use them on the trail, but they have been well tested on the road in fairly hot and humid conditions - I have run several 20+ mile road runs in them and finished every run with dry feet. I also wore them in last weekend's marathon relays when we won the Governor's Cup, so they are my new lucky socks as well as my new favorite road socks.
Rating : 9.5 (tested on road)

Drymax Golf : very comfortable when you're going to be on your feet all day. I wore them with my everyday shoes and my deck shoes and they kept my feet nice and comfortable
Rating :7 (tested in general everyday use)

Drymax Maximum Protection : untested as yet - waiting for the weather to cool down before trying these, though after reading some opinions by other runners and foot experts like John Vonhof, I already have them earmarked for the Bandera 100k
Rating : untested

In summary, a very impressive line of running sock. Preference of sock thickness is very individual and has a lot to do with shoe fit but there's something in this line for everyone, and I've found a new go-to road sock (though I still love and use the Wrightsocks and Balegas as well).

Thrown to the Dogs

Gavin came up to me tonight with a serious look on his face. He looked me in the eye, wagged his finger at me and said "daddy, if you don't behave I'll throw you over the fence and let the dogs have you". Then he walked off laughing. What? Where did that come from? My boy is a cheeky little blighter - I'm so proud.

I started reading another Patricia Cornwell "wristslasher" this lunchtime. I was quite happy when I started reading - half an hour later I was ready to jump out the window and end it all. Her characters are without exception grey, miserable, pessimistic, whiny and full of self pity. They are forever moping around complaining about their "hard lives" and sounding increasingly like Eeyore. I enjoyed the early Kay Scarpetta novels but the later ones became increasingly bizarre and unrealistic. This one - "Black Notice" - falls somewhere in the middle. It starts with the main character sobbing in emotional turmoil and making a complete prat of herself. And she just keeps on going. By the end of the first chapter she must be completely dehydrated and I was about ready to whack her myself.

One thing I do like about the Kay Scarpetta novels is that the stories are intertwined with some great Italian cooking, which leads to this book - the most unique, fun and delicious cookbook I own. I have not had one bad recipe from it and each one includes a small description of how it fits into the novel to which it belongs. The recipes are indexed by both course and novel - highly recommended.

Dogs, Hot Tubs and Laptops

One of the things we love about our house is the hot tub built into the deck in the backyard - it's great fun when it gets cold and Gavin loves it. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of having a dog is that they really don't play well with hot tub covers. I've lost count of the number of times we've replaced it, but each time Charlie has started to tear it open again within a matter of weeks, and before you know it he's ripped the waterproof lining open and is pulling the polystyrene out of it. When that happens, it fills with water and becomes impossible to lift. So this summer we decided to drain the hot tub and cut the power to it. It's been lying dormant ever since, but now that Fall is in the air we wanted to clean it out and get it back up and running - but how to stop Charlie from destroying the cover? I think we solved the problem this weekend when we found a website selling aluminum hot tub covers. At $995 they're really expensive but we've spent much more than that just replacing the fabric covers so we decided to suck it up and bought one. It will be nice to be able to use the hot tub again, especially with all the ultras I have planned for this winter.

And then yesterday my laptop suddenly broke down with hardware problems I think are related to overheating. It's an old IBM Thinkpad that I've been using for a number of years. I installed linux on it about a year ago which gave it a new lease of life - I use it to write my blog, check email, surf the internet, interface to my jukebox and sometimes watch dvds or tv on (via a wireless link to my DVR). I loved that laptop and I hate the idea of having to buy a new one with all kinds of stuff I don't need and will never use, so I searched around ebay and found the same model listed for $89. It didn't include a hard drive, but I can canibalise that and several other parts from my existing machine, and I don't have to pay for a Microsoft license for an operating system I will only uninstall anyway. I'm not shy about opening these machines up to tinker with them, so I bought it - I think (and hope) I got a good deal.

In the meantime, I'm writing this on my ancient Thinkpad. It was built in the 1990s and I've had it for years, but it's still perfectly usable under Linux. Maybe when I get the other laptop configured I'll install a minimal version of the operating system on here and use it as a fast booting machine just for writing.