Apr 16-19, 2008: 4 Runs in AL: 3, 6, 3, & 9.3 (Statue-to-Statue Race)

I kept up with the Daily Source Code, caught up with This American Life, and Phedippidations. Steve, host of Phedippidations, is about to run Boston. So, that last few shows have been about the course, Steve's preparation, and some historical stuff about Boston. Good shows.

Gear Rants:

• The Motorola S9 bluetooth headset has lot its ability to manage volume again. So, I will be sending it back for the fourth time.
• iTunes continues to sporadically delete the physical file for a podcast. This forces me to download the file manually and tell iTunes where the file is located so I can manage this in iTunes. I first logged this in the Apple discussion forum on March 25, 2007 (Yes, over a year ago!). Apple archived this discussion, so I added it again (After a Year, Podcasts file STILL disappear from harddrive during sync). I would have to say that as a podcatcher, iTunes f**king sucks! I still have ghost listings of podcasts that are not on my harddrive, not in my iTunes library, not in my iTunes Podcasts library, but show up in iTunes playlists (Stranded Podcasts and Playlists That Have "Non-Existent" Podcast episodes on Apple's Discussion Forum).
• Finally, the Garmin 305's battery was died during my 3 mile run on April 16. I don't know if I accidentally left it on, its button got pushed in the special carry case I bought, or what. I am assuming user error at this point.
  

My running is going well. I just finished the Statue-to-Statue run yesterday and look at my history:

• 2008 - 1:17:39
  
• 2007 - 1:20:48
• 2006 - 1:25:55

I sure can't complain about that. This is a very tough run with some serious hills.

A friend of mine sent me this humorous picture since I am reading The God Delusion:

What a hoot!

Data

04/19/2008: Statue-to-Statue Run, Birmingham, AL

	Distance:	9.38 Miles
	Time:	1:17:39
	Heart Rate:	165
	Pace:	8:16
	Weather:	Few clouds Temperature-55° Humidity-77%
	Route

04/18/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	27:28
Heart Rate:	157
Pace:	9:09
Weather:	Clear Temperature-52° Humidity-83%

04/17/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	6 Miles
Time:	54:54
Heart Rate:	156
Pace:	9:09
Weather:	Clear Temperature-47° Humidity-80%

04/16/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	27:36
Pace:	9:12
Weather:	Clear Temperature-39° Humidity-82%

Apr 6-13, 2008: 6 Runs in SC & AL: 9, 3, 5, 3, 3 & 13 Miles

I kept up with the Daily Source Code, caught up with This American Life, and Phedippidations. The Motorola S9 died on Tuesday because I let the battery get too low. iTunes died on Friday because it thought its library got corrupted. That led to hours of recovery work for me. It appears that in such a circumstance, it can rebuild the music library. But, it loses track of downloaded podcast episodes. The podcast episodes show up in playlists, but not in Podcasts or Music (as show in the library part of iTunes). Thus, they can't be deleted, don't really exists, and appear to be stranded on the iPod and iPhone. I discovered that I could get them off of the iPod and iPhone, but unchecking them in bogus playlists I created just for this purpose. What a pain in the ass. I do wish Apple would make these lists a little more transparent and powerful. For example, let me delete from the playlist and ask if I want it removed from the library. And, if I say yes, delete from the real and the ghost library. Further, let me delete directly from the iPod and iPhone. Oh, and while you are at it, Apple, let me build playlists on the device too. I'm sure they are listening to me rant and tomorrow it will be released. Yeah right!

I had a stressful week of work during which I cranked out lots of hours, but I managed to run on plan for the most part. Work will be this way for awhile. Goes with making money, I reckon. All you can do is buck up and go on.

Judy came out to run this Sunday for the first time in awhile. We didn't chat too much, but it was good to see her. I believe she had some plantar fasciitis pain towards the end. She has been battling this injury for awhile :(. I hope all turns out well. Prince and I rode together and he convinced me to run 13 instead of the planned 11. He ran 15.

Geoff Smith created a cool Bohemian Financial Rhapsody (obvious parody of a Queen song), follow this link to Podsafe Music Network and listen to a theme about the current financial woes.

Data

04/13/2008: Brownell, Shades Creek, Crestline

Distance:	13 Miles
Time:	2:01:07
Heart Rate:	139
Pace:	9:11
Weather:	Clear Temperature-45° Humidity-58%
Route

04/12/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	26:42
Heart Rate:	146
Pace:	8:54
Weather:	Cloudy Temperature-56° Humidity-64%

04/11/2008: Blythewood, SC

Distance:	3.14 Miles
Time:	26:36
Heart Rate:	153
Pace:	8:28
Weather:	Overcast Temperature-64° Humidity-83%
Route

04/10/2008: Blythewood, SC

Distance:	5.09 Miles
Time:	45:09
Heart Rate:	147
Pace:	8:52
Weather:	Hazy Temperature-54° Humidity-83%
Route

04/08/2008: Blythewood, SC

Distance:	3.18 Miles
Time:	27:26
Heart Rate:	142
Pace:	8:37
Weather:	Mostly cloudy Temperature-55° Humidity-77%
Route

04/06/2008: Lake Wateree, SC

Distance:	8.9 Miles
Time:	1:23:33
Heart Rate:	151
Pace:	9:23
Weather:	Overcast Temperature-64° Humidity-88%
Route

Apr 1-5, 2008: 2 Runs at Home & Cooper River Bridge Run: 3, 6 & 6.2 Miles

I kept up with the Daily Source Code and This American Life. A good week of running and a hard week or working. Wednesday's run was in a pouring rain. Prince was out in it too. Good run though. Then, I knocked off the longest mid-week run and skipped the Friday run to put in a little taper to prepare for the Cooper River Bridge Run on Saturday. I was hoping to PR (run a personal record), but I missed by 33 seconds. However, a 48:39 is very good for me regardless. I was 2 minutes behind pace at the top of the bridge, so to end only 33 secs off is not bad. I can say that I am confident that I did not feel as strong after the peak of the bridge like I did last year.

Data

04/05/2008: Cooper River Bridge Run

	Distance:	6.2 Miles
	Time:	48:39
	Heart Rate:	170
	Pace:	7:46
	Weather:	Overcast Temperature-69° Humidity-90%
	Route

04/02/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	6 Miles
Time:	55:15
Heart Rate:	142
Pace:	9:12
Weather:	Clear Temperature-55° Humidity-86%

04/01/2008: Neighborhood

Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	28:00
Heart Rate:	148
Pace:	9:20
Weather:	Raining Temperature-57° Humidity-93%