Information about things that interest and excite me, including but not limited to: popular culture, Catholicism, food, sports (particularly the Denver Broncos kind), teaching, Southern life from a Western perspective, college composition, and whatever else I feel like writing about.

I had a very nice date here once :)

denverpost:

Night won’t fall on Fort Collins, Colo., drive-in anytime soon

Another outdoor movie season has come and gone, as have the usual offers for Wesley Webb to sell the Holiday Twin Drive-In.

“My wife and I, we kind of shrug it off,” said Webb, 80, whose 32nd season at the Holiday Twin wrapped over Labor Day weekend with “Cowboys and Aliens.”

(Photos by Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)

occupyherbstreit: What is the difference between Cam Newton & Enron? Only one can survive a SEC investigation

occupyherbstreit:

What is the difference between Cam Newton & Enron? Only one can survive a SEC investigation

Jajaja love this blog! occupyherbstreit: No Jobs + No Showers: Occupy Wall Street or Alabama Tailgate?

Jajaja love this blog!

occupyherbstreit:

No Jobs + No Showers: Occupy Wall Street or Alabama Tailgate?

I successfully completed my first 5K yesterday! I finished with an official time of 31:36. The Good: -Being pumped! I had so much adrenaline going into the race. For the first 2.5 or so miles, I was focused, and just running like a machine. I had some good music going. -Finishing! I finished a 5K. And even though it wasn’t my target time, I’m still really proud of what I’ve done. After I walked around for a bit and got some water, I became overwhelmed with emotion—I actually started to tear up a little. I wanted to do something I didn’t think I would be able to do, I set out to do it, and I did it! -Finally feeling like a runner. I looked good, I felt good as I ran. After the race, I realized that I want to keep running, to get faster and better. I’m planning on going out for a brief run today because I feel so good. -Support! Lots of people were supporting me, encouraging me to run. Even the race organizers were supportive. I like that most runners are a really supportive community; since it’s really about personal effort until the elite level, it’s all encouragement, in my opinion. The Bad: -They made a change in the course route last minute, so we ended up running more through neighborhoods and side streets. That was a bummer for two reasons; first, my friends, who were going to cheer me on as I ran, couldn’t since the race was no longer going past their place. Second, it added another significant hill to the run! -Pacing: By Mile 2 I was running about 18:30—that’s really fast for me. But I was really tired. The last mile is mostly uphill, so I really had to slow down and struggle through it. I think if I had ran just a little slower or even walked earlier in the race, I could have kept up enough energy to power up the hill in the end. -Race organization (kinda). For the price I paid ($25) I thought the race would be a little more professionally organized. The last 400 meters was a run through the strip mall parking lot; though they did a great job redirecting traffic at other portions of the run, this was a place where it would have been good to have someone telling cars to keep out of my way. I think I could have finished a couple of seconds faster—not a big deal overall, but it was weird having to dodge cars in the parking lot when I was exhausted. -Last song choice: My music was great up until the last song which I tried to switch through the back pocket of my skirt, but couldn’t. So, this ended up being the song I listened to as I powered up the last hill. Not a good choice for the tired end of the race. Wish this song had come up instead. Overall…can’t wait for the next race!

I successfully completed my first 5K yesterday! I finished with an official time of 31:36.

The Good:

-Being pumped! I had so much adrenaline going into the race. For the first 2.5 or so miles, I was focused, and just running like a machine. I had some good music going.

-Finishing! I finished a 5K. And even though it wasn’t my target time, I’m still really proud of what I’ve done. After I walked around for a bit and got some water, I became overwhelmed with emotion—I actually started to tear up a little. I wanted to do something I didn’t think I would be able to do, I set out to do it, and I did it!

-Finally feeling like a runner. I looked good, I felt good as I ran. After the race, I realized that I want to keep running, to get faster and better. I’m planning on going out for a brief run today because I feel so good.

-Support! Lots of people were supporting me, encouraging me to run. Even the race organizers were supportive. I like that most runners are a really supportive community; since it’s really about personal effort until the elite level, it’s all encouragement, in my opinion.

The Bad:

-They made a change in the course route last minute, so we ended up running more through neighborhoods and side streets. That was a bummer for two reasons; first, my friends, who were going to cheer me on as I ran, couldn’t since the race was no longer going past their place. Second, it added another significant hill to the run!

-Pacing: By Mile 2 I was running about 18:30—that’s really fast for me. But I was really tired. The last mile is mostly uphill, so I really had to slow down and struggle through it. I think if I had ran just a little slower or even walked earlier in the race, I could have kept up enough energy to power up the hill in the end.

-Race organization (kinda). For the price I paid ($25) I thought the race would be a little more professionally organized. The last 400 meters was a run through the strip mall parking lot; though they did a great job redirecting traffic at other portions of the run, this was a place where it would have been good to have someone telling cars to keep out of my way. I think I could have finished a couple of seconds faster—not a big deal overall, but it was weird having to dodge cars in the parking lot when I was exhausted.

-Last song choice: My music was great up until the last song which I tried to switch through the back pocket of my skirt, but couldn’t. So, this ended up being the song I listened to as I powered up the last hill. Not a good choice for the tired end of the race. Wish this song had come up instead.

Overall…can’t wait for the next race!

Magic Mile

And so today’s Magic Mile time was… 8:28. Whoa. Like, whoa whoa.

If you had ever told me that I would be running a mile in under 10 minutes, I would have been like

So obviously, this is an accomplishment; and, not to mention, my fastest mile EVER

At the end of the mile, I definitely felt like

And definitely now that I have to run 9:01 splits in the 5K I’m like

I just don’t want to be setting myself up for failure by expecting to break 30 minutes when I run the 5K…I may try to see if I can go out to route and run it again…maybe not at full on race pace, but faster than I have been to see if I can shave down 2 minutes. I’m not asking for 27-28 minutes…just 30!

Run Run Run

Today I did a 6 mile run in 1:08; that equals to about 11:33/mi. Now, given that I only walked maybe 5 minutes of the whole run, and stopped running only a couple of times, that’s actually a pretty decent time, and about a minute faster than is recommended by running experts given my “race time” (which I actually have yet to figure out.)

I’m thinking that my seemingly ambitious goal to qualify for the BolderBoulder in under 10:54/mi wasn’t actually that ambitious. We’ll see though—I have my first 5k this week!!! Tomorrow (if I’m not too sore) I’m headed to the track to run my “Magic Mile” in order to figure out race pace. Magic Mile workout looks like:

800m jog

~30 seconds of walking

1mi running at about a 7 or 8 effort out of 10.

Cool down jog

Whatever the speed mile time is, I add 33 seconds to it for my “Magic Mile” time. That’s the ideal mile split I should be running. Right now, I run about 10-10:30 mile splits on average, but I know I can go faster than that, especially on this race course which has some significant downhill portions. My fastest ever mile was 9:0-something at Kiesel, which I’m certain is mislabeled.

Also

I just found out that a Facebook friend of mine, who I would consider a casual acquaintance at best, was on The Amazing Race in 2006 (families edition). This brings my official consortium of Facebook game show participants up to 3: me, my friend Greg (Double Dare) and this guy, Brian.

More Photos and Race Prep

It occurs to me I should post more photos from my life.

These are my friends Michael, Kellye and Garrard walking down College Street, Auburn’s main street, after the first home win against Utah St. Notice Garrard is carrying a blow-up walrus. My weekends have become interesting, we’ll say.

I finally signed up for the Skirt Chaser 5K! Though not a charity race, it is Big Dog Running Company’s first race in Auburn after having opened their wonderful store just next to Chappy’s Deli. The race takes place Saturday, Oct. 8 in the evening.

Tonight I decided to run the course route. I ended up running further than intended because some hooligans stole the street signs at the corner of Brookwood Dr. and Auburn Dr. I ended up taking that extra little U down Brookwood and around Bowden which tacked on an extra steep hill, 2 minutes or more, and about 400 M.

My total time ended up being 37:22; now that I know the course a little better and won’t add on that extra distance, I hope to shave down that time by at least five minutes for the race. Well, I hope anyway. The last mile has a couple of steady hills, so I might try hill training this next week to get ready. To me, this felt like a really long distance; however, the fact that I was able to get through it almost running the whole way (a couple of times to cross streets, a couple of times because I’m a baby) is a really great sign.

I also did a little poking around today and discovered that I’m still eligible to use the rec facilities on campus as a faculty member including, to my suprise, their personal training services. Meeting 3x a week with a personal trainer only costs $90 for the entire semester, which is such a good deal.

In other news, I’m painfully behind on grading. I’m going to shower, fix myself a cold drink, pop on Skins-Cowboys and plow through 8-10 essays tonight.

Yes, yes and yes. bendoeslife: As evidenced by every picture of me running ever. Amirite?

Yes, yes and yes.

bendoeslife:

As evidenced by every picture of me running ever.

Amirite?

After seeing Drive (which was great), and reflecting on my last post, I have discovered that when I say I like electronic, I like this type of electronic—songs with a lyrical, driving beat like “Nightcall.” The bomb.

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