lets get dirty.

Hey America, how are you?

Let me tell you something America, and please know that I'm talking directly to you, and only to you. Nobody else is included, not even England or Canada, or anybody else. You look good.

I'd like to talk about my running. Let's get dirty and let it all hang out. My motivation for running is a bit low at the moment. I go through some periods of enthusiasm, and I strung together a small (12 day) running streak that ended last week. I found a nice race called the Flying Monkey Marathon that I think I can get excited about, but it comes in fits and starts for now.

The point I want to make is that, life is difficult for a young and healthy white man. Who is there to feel my pain? Nobody cares what we do, since we're young and healthy. If we train like crazy and run a marathon, it doesn't mean that much because we're young and healthy, and that kind of thing should be no problem for us. And things are especially problematic for young and healthy men like me who are generally well below average in athletic endeavors. A couple years ago, I trained like crazy and even ran every single day for more than six months and I ran a marathon in 4:17, and a half marathon in 1:49. These times were great for me and I'm proud of them, but they're below average for someone my age.

But what people don't know about me, is that I've had a bone in my leg since the day I was born. I don't like to talk about it since I don't really want any pity. Please consider that when you see my race times. I'm doing all this with a bone the size of a full-grown ferret in my right leg.

Thanks for your time.
Love, Keith.

Texas Independence Relay - March 1-2, 2008

I don't need a very long race report since probably all my readers were there, on my team. I'm proud to have been a part of the Battling Bloggers of the Texas Republic. You guys ROCK!

I had a great time, running, resting, seeing the small towns, running again, rooting for my teammates, crashing on the floor and sleeping harder than ever before, and then running again.

I apologize for anything I may have said when I was itchy and jonesin' for some sweet sweet gummy bears. I think I yelled at Manny to "keep the water and just get me some f--k--g gummy bears!" I realize now that not having my gummy bears wasn't the end of the world. Sorry Manny.

I'll post the pictures I took soon. For posterity and clicking ease, here is an exhaustive list of the team members with their blogs.

Dave
Adrienne
Katy
Holden
Keith
Sarah
Edwin
Jon
Karen
Joseph
Tommy
Cassie

Keith out!

TIR running / recovery plan

I've been working out the ideal recovery plan for my running, since I think the TIR is going to be a test for how fast we recharge everything. Here's what I've determined, through exhaustive experimentation, to be the ideal plan for running / recovering. Some of the tasks require some assistance from one or more teammates.

## Prior to run
3-4 hours prior to run - start drinking lots of water
1-2 hours prior to run - 100 - 150 calories of carbohydrates, more water
30 minutes prior to run - less water, so nothing will be sloshing around on the run

## During the run
mile 0 - I drink a little water but spit it out
mile 1 - I eat five or seven gummy bears
mile 1.5 - One small cup Peachy Keen Cytomax - more gummy bears
mile 2 - no liquids at all, I need lots of positive reinforcement
mile 2.5 - only red gummy bears, but I dont eat them, just chew and spit
mile 3 - I'll raise my arms and say 'whoop whoop whoop!'
mile 3.5 - I need negative reinforcement at this point - no gummy bears.
mile 4 - A light slap to the face/ eye poke is ideal at this moment.
mile 4.5 - A little childish mockery, one gummy bear
mile 5 and beyond - please provide various surprises to keep things interesting. intermittent gummy bears.

## After the run
- a little pretend stretching
- some flexing of muscles
- talking about how I was tired for a while and felt better for a while and then tired again
15 minutes of groaning
30 minutes of staring into space, gummy bears ad libitum

This plan has proven to be the most effective at recharging my glycogen stores, which I think will be a key component for maintaining energy in the later legs of the relay. You might take issue with the necessity of some elements, but the data are the data. Bottom line is that it works.

Ran 3 miles last night, 2 more on tap for tonight.

Keith.

Yeehaw.

Hey America! How are you?! You look beautiful.

Sorry for the delay in posting. I've been terribly busy. I look for some time when I can sit down, write a little to you, and post some pictures of my travelings. I went to Mallorca, Spain for a conference with some of the best numbercrunchers in the world. I have pictures of that. And I went to Colombia to meet Claudia's parents, which I was quite nervous about. I have pictures of that too.

I wrote and applied for a pre-doctoral fellowship which was quite an involved process, with a firing line interview and everything. I'm happy to say I was accepted and my employment situation is significantly more secure than before. Without this fellowship, I could keep my job of course, but worse than that, I may have had to teach! I'm still recovering from the last time I taught and how the TA evaluations came back and everybody was very positive except one guy that wrote "TA is so suck." How could he write that! Can't you be a little more constructive with your criticism Mr. Bui! Yes, I know it was you, Mr. Bui! The form was anonymous, but I know it was you!

Well, there's that, and during my absence, I missed so much stuff that needed commenting, for example:

There was a marathon recently in the area, and so many of my friends were in it. I'm proud of all of you. I was home that day, cursing myself for not being in shape enough for a marathon. It's a painful experience to be a runner in Houston, and not be fit for the Houston Marathon. I thought about selling my bib, but in the end I decided that I deserved to lose my money, the lazy bum that I am.

There's a certain relay that people have been talking about. I have a lot to say about that too, and I haven't been connected as I should be. I'm excited about the race. I think the whole experience is going to be a blast and a half.

And there were some other events of general interest which could have yielded some interesting comments. For example, there was a senator that got caught propositioning an undercover police officer in an airport restroom. I had some funny things to say about that, and I missed my chance. And how his excuse that he wasn't propositioning, he just has a wide stance and hit the other guys foot accidentally, that doesn't really make sense because in the restroom, to have a wide stance you have to have your pants all the way off. I was going to say that, and I was also going to say that the bottom line is, if your in the restroom and you touch my foot even accidentally, you have to lose your job, whether your a senator, or a doctor, or a busboy, or anything.

I've been focused almost exclusively on neurobiology and there are a lot of interesting things going on. Maybe at some point I'll try to boil it down for something that would be interesting for the general public. I've read some interesting things recently that attempt to address how you can keep a concept in your mind, sort of a analogy to working memory at the cellular level.

Anywho, I'm looking for time. I don't even really have it right now, I'm still at work and all.

Talk to you later,
Keith out!

Good Hair Day

Hey America! How are you? You look good.

Rest assured, I look good too. Very good. Amazingly good. I'm having a very good hair day, that's why. It's a shame that not everybody gets to have a hair day like the hair day I'm having. If they did, there would surely be no wars, no hatred. And like all great things, my hair is being misinterpreted. Instead of inspiring people, even my very own friends and coworkers are growing tired of my enthusiasm about my very very good hair day. I'd say this was the second best hair day I've ever had.

I've been doing well America, despite the lack of blogging. I'm quite busy. Ever since my boss left town and got a job in the real world, I've come to realize that I have more advisors than ever. As of the last count, I have four professors who have a legitimate claim to being able to tell me what to do. I'd say probably two of the four are happy at any given moment.

And I'm preparing for a trip next week. For 6 days, I'll be in sunny Mallorca, in the Spanish Islands, living it up, running down the nude beaches, enjoying my free food and vitamins, hob-nobbing with celebrity computational neuroscientists from around the globe. All the big names in mathematical biology will be there.

I've been running well, and I'm proud to say I've run every mile prescribed to me in the Hansons' Marathon Training Program that I introduced to you here. Maybe not always on the day prescribed, but soon thereafter, and every lazy morning was rectified by an evening run, sometimes late at night.

I've followed the old four-stage pattern that I encountered again and again during my six month running streak last year. First, when increasing mileage, everything goes well, and enthusiasm carries me through one week easily. The second week hurts as the increased workload begins to take it's toll. The third week is better, and the fourth week feels too easy. That's where I am now, feeling fit enough for the schedule, at least for this week. Next week, things take quite a jump in mileage and speedwork. I'm a little nervous about it all, but I expect the enthusiasm of the mileage bump, along with all the running on the nude beaches to carry me through to the second week at least.

Anyways, I'm incubating my cells in some calcium indicator, so I have to go now.

Comb your hair.
Keith.

2:04:26

Haile Gebrselassie breaks marathon world record in Berlin.
Read the full story here.

I had a feeling he would do it. He's so determined. He's determined to win the gold medal in the marathon too.

Rock on like Haile!

Keith.

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Registration.

i'm interrupting my workday to remind you that if you haven't registered for the marathon, you should probably do it this weekend or even today. It's at 93% capacity already!

I registered for the full yesterday.

Keith out.