Azeroth

As I've made my way through Azeroth, I've come to the startling realization that there are more active members of World of Warcraft (8 million) than there are active members of my church globally. WoW has more active members than any religion's total number of active and inactive members in the United States except for the top four. And WoW players don't even knock on doors. I feel an entirely improper anecdote that I could share in fast and testimony meeting, minus the fasting, coming on.

Sometimes

My cheapness creates interesting situations. Some might even call them awkward. I've been at a client site in the South Bay for a few weeks. That means I am able to drive, rather than BART to work. It's nice because I get to listen to KNBR, a sports radio station. However, I only get to listen to it from the front left speakers in my car. You see, I am driving our Brooklynized green 1997 Toyota Corolla and all of the other speakers have blown.

I will post a picture of it one day, but most of you have already seen it. First of all, it's green. Second, there is a large dent on the front left side from the kids playing stickball on the street in our last Brooklyn apartment. Third, there is a large key mark that starts from one side of the car goes around the back of the car and then back up the other side of the car from when Liz and her friend 'stole' an angry white man's parking spot at the Macy's in downtown Brooklyn and he decided that keying our piece of HUD was the appropriate response. Fourth, the right headlight is out. And fifth, on the hood of this car, in large keyed out letters, is the F-word from when we went apple picking in New Jersey. NEW F*%#!+@ JERSEY!!! Anyways, this car is a piece of work. But it is a paid off piece of work that gets almost 30 mpg. Buy a new car? No way. I'm driving this thing into the ground and then Zane is going to drive it to high school.

Well, last night, the team at this client decided to go out to dinner in the city, which is about a 45 minute drive. A principal at my firm (that's the highest level) who is from out of town asked me to pick him up from his hotel and drive him to the restaurant. I swallowed my pride and said sure, I'd be happy to give him a ride in The Green Hornet. He laughed and I said, no, I'm serious, it's The Green Hornet. He then just looked at me funny and I just smiled.

When I was about five minutes away from his hotel, I called him and told him I was close and to look for the green Corolla with one headlight. I'm sure he was very impressed. He mentioned on the way back that he had ridden with an analyst once who did a fantastic job on a project, but who also had a beater of a car. He said that the only feedback he had for this person once the project was complete was to get a new car. I can only hope he has the same feedback for me.

And yes, I've probably written about my car before. Redundancy strikes again.

Warning!

Scroll down only if you'd like to see the roof rat that was killed in our garage last week. Hey, at least I didn't need to chase it around in my garage with a shovel like Tom Tolbert.

Two Months Early

Apparently I should have looked more closely at the race links I posted earlier. The Salt Lake City Marathon is not in the first week of June, as it was last year. It is on April 21st. That's less than 14 weeks away. As I'd only been averaging about 20 miles a week, that means that I need to quickly kick up the mileage and do so while not injuring myself, which as both of you know, is a tough task. My foam roller will help, but I'm not sure if it can accomplish what cortisone shots and physical therapy could not. Keep the ITB pain away during serious marathon training. We'll see.

The good thing is that SLC is not my goal marathon, but my warmup marathon. I'd be happy with a sub 3:20 and will probably run a 3:15. The fun part about this training schedule is that I have a running buddy that is pretty close to me in terms of how fast he is. We're running together Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are easy days of 4 to 6 miles.

Tuesday mornings = speed workout. We're rotating 800m and 1600m repeats at 45 to 50 seconds faster than goal marathon pace, which for him is about 7:50. We had our first speed workout this past Tuesday at 5am at the local track. It was 29 degrees, which sucked at first, but was nice once we finished our warmup and was great when we were on our 5th 800, which we did in 3:30. Nothing popped and everything felt good. Next week, we'll drop the time by another 10 seconds or so. We'll peak at doing twelve 800s and seven 1600s. Those should be pretty interesting days. Maybe I'll work from home.

Thursdays = Hills or Tempo workout. We're rotating an 8 mile trail run in the hills, again at 5am with our headlamps with a tempo run, which for the non-runners is a run where the middle 60% of your run, you run it at your 10k pace, which for my friend is about 7:15 pace. Our first run is tomorrow and we're starting with the hills. At 5am. I don't think I'm going to be able to give up caffeine for this training cycle. I do need to stay awake during most of work.

Saturdays = Long workout. Notice that I didn't say long and slow. I don't believe in running slow. To run fast, you gotta run fast. Our schedule includes three 20 milers and two 22 milers. For the first four weeks, our long runs will be 75% at a nice easy pace and 25% at goal marathon pace. The next seven weeks, we'll run 50% easy and 50% at goal marathon pace. Then of course is the taper.

WoW continues to progress slowly, although I haven't played for the past couple of days. My main character, Vlabba is at Level 15, but if I focus tonight, I think I can get him up to 16. The other day I meandered into contested territory the other day and was quickly felled by some dude riding a dragon that shot a lightning bolt at me. I told you that I hate The Horde, right? Well, at least Vlabba does. I haven't told Liz yet about the role playing aspect of this game and the dwarf costume I must buy. It's pretty tough.

Racing Schedule

- Ragnar del Sol Relay I'm the third leg.

- St. George Triathlon Although it appears to be sold out at the moment. Ben and Josh, you need to help me out here.

- Salt Lake City Marathon A training run for me where I'll likely be the pacer for a group that will be trying to BQ at a later marathon.

- St. George Marathon This is where I will attempt what is for me my ultimate marathoning goal, a sub-3 hour marathon.

I'll probably have some 10ks and half-marathons thrown in for good measure. Some of the people here in the Bay area want me to run some crazy trail runs, but I'm not sold yet.

What does your racing schedule look like?

Score The Quiz

As expected, I am a conservative-leaning libertarian. No shock there. Take this quiz to find out where your political philosophy lies and with which candidates that philosophy aligns with.

On a more serious note, my Dwarf Paladin Vlabba is progressing nicely. This two handed mace thing is absolutely destructive. I'm on the Hakaar server in case in of you other nerds want to go on a raid sometime.