Training does not necessarily stop because of the holidays, actually with only a few weeks left before our run these are probably the more critical training sessions of our whole program. Anyway, my training while in Elko got off to a not so good start due to some snow early in the week. I had to run a couple of days in the treadmill which has never been my favorite choice. Midweek, I was able to get outside and I found a nice 6 mile loop that took me through the town.
I decided to do my long run for the week today (friday) instead of the scheduled saturday since I was on an off schedule routine already and I can also enjoy the holiday weekend without being too tired. Our schedule called for a 20 mile run today but given that I am a few thousand feet higher in altitude I decided to shorten it a bit. Since I had a 6 mile loop mapped out I decided I would run this path 3 times, this would also give me a way to grab a new bottle of water every time I would come by the house.
The run was far more complex than our usual canal runs, the difference is mostly based on some pretty heavy hills that I had to climb. Because of where my parents live, it was a 10 minute downhill run to the town’s center, a good 20-25 minutes through the town and then a climb back to the house. The climb involved 4 hills (and their downhill part too) which had not been part of my previous training. I completed the 3 laps in 2:14:56 which leads me to believe it was not quite 18 miles but a little less. The pace of 18 miles would’ve been 7:29 which seems too fast, for 17 miles it was about 7:56 which feels a little more appropriate.
We are three weeks away from our race (Jan 15th) and this was the last run trying to build up milage. We start tapering down now leading to race day so you can say that we have finished the second phase of our training. Now it is more a matter of remaining injury free and more importantly try to avoid that common cold typical of this time of the year.
I left the warmth of Arizona over the weekend to come over to my parent’s house for the holidays in Northern Nevada. Saturday we travelled back from Salt Lake City and I had to spend the rest of the day, night and Sunday morning on finishing the final exam for my class. It was done with 20 minutes to spare ;o)
It had been snowing all day Sunday, which sort of put a little twist to my whole running-outside plan. My parents have a treadmill in their basement so I decided to go for a run indoors while watching some soccer game on the tv to keep me from thinking too much about running inside. I am not sure if it was the altitude, the treadmill or the small incline set on the treadmill but it was rough. I managed to squeeze the will to get to 45 minutes but it was a bear. Monday does not look like it will be any better as far as running outside so we’ll be extending our indoor training at least one more day.
One last note, Sprint has not managed to come to this part of the world so I don’t have my access to my phone. If you would like to get in touch send me an email or look for me on your chat client since I will be online off and on all week.
It is over! I have successfully completed my first twenty mile training run this past saturday morning and I can certainly tell you that 20 miles is a long way to run, it tests every aspect of your training and can break your morale in the process. However, once you realize you have completed the most grueling part of your training you have a real sense of accomplishment. Something that can only be topped by completing the actual race in a matter of few weeks.
It was rough but I completed the 20 miles in 2:44:20 which turns out to be a 8:12 pace, leaving plenty of room for improvement. I can break the run in a few stages, similar to how I felt on the road. Going out I was running with the group and three of us had a great pace going. We reached the turn around point in 1:17:54 (7:47 pace) but I spent a lot of energy trying to get comfortable. On the way back, I got caught in traffic a couple of times which meant I was going to be running on my own the last eight miles, something that can be a very grueling task.
I was not able to think/walk/convince myself to keep the 8:00 pace during the last few miles, I was anywhere between 8:30 and 9:00 which is why my average climbed up from the first 10 miles going out. I am not happy with the time but I am ecstatic about the fact that I completed the distance and today I feel relatively well. I made the mistake to break in some new shoes on this run but I didn’t want to use my old ones and risk hurting my foot once again. I will have another opportunity to improve my time in a couple of weeks, when I will be running at home (remember to bring some music along!) during the holidays.
FIFA announced the group seeds for the 2006 World Cup finals. Germany, Brazil, Italy, France, Argentina, Spain, Mexico and England will lead each of the eight groups. In addition, Mexico announced they will be concentrating in Gottingen which was also their camp during the Confederations Cup earlier this year.
Under the seedings system Brazil have 64 points followed by England (51), Spain (50), Germany (48), Mexico (47), France (46), Argentina (44) and Italy (44). The USA had 43 points and Holland 38.
The remainder of the groups will be put together this Friday (Dec 9) during the draw for the finals of the World Cup which will be made at the Messe in Leipzig, Germany. ESPN SoccerNet will be covering the ceremony live on the web in case you are interested in following the events. I’ll post the final fixtures once the draw comes to an end.
UPDATE: it goes without saying but the draw has set up some very good matches in the group play. Print out the calendar from your nearest online sports website and think about your picks. I will blog my thoughts about the fixtures over the weekend, I might even setup a special area for everyone to discuss all Germany 2006 activities for the next six months!
I am currently looking into WordPress and the functionality it can provide as a content management system (CMS) for a fairly basic website. I’ve installed the core package to take a close look at the functionality, specially because I was not able to find any content describing the strategy for a project like this one. Many claim that WP is great but I will have to find out by myself.
The time-consuming aspect of this kind of research is the time I have to spend becoming familiar with the syntax, functions and overall code strategy which WP provides. I have succesfully used MovableType (MT) as the CMS behind a couple of projects so I feel very comfortable with that package. However, I need an alternative for the project I have in mind and WP appears to be a good candidate. The project site will be very basic with only a couple of sections being heavy on the "dynamic" aspect. I hope to spend some time during the holiday break getting to know WordPress a little better.
Some links for future reference: WordPress as a CMS, A complete CMS and WordPress 1.5 as a web site CMS
