Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Four Honeybees!

Okay, judging by the responses, I take it most people would not watch the movie about the alternate universe filled with really boring things and people. How about a movie thats sort of a documentary about a bunch of people like you and me who get together and stage an alien invasion hoax and its a documentary which means we really do stage the hoax and all the people think its real and then the movie comes out to tell them how they're all idiots. Would you watch that one?

Anywho, did I run since Saturday? I don't think so. I've been quite busy looking for a place to live near the Medical Center. I live way out in Pasadena now because it is a relatively cheap place to live, especially since I owned a 90 lb dog and to rent a place that accepts such a large animal near the med center is very expensive. As you may know, last year, my poor babyboy passed away, so now it's back to the med center, where I can probably save a little money on gas and whatnots when all is said and done.

Also, I volunteered to be a guinea pig in a bird flu study. So that should be fun. Fun spending my four hundred bucks anyway! All I have to do is, get injected by an experimental vaccine, which may or may not give me the birdflu, write down my thoughts and feelings for a couple weeks, then go back for some blood drawings, and then I think another vaccine, and then some more free form writing of my emotions, and then some more blood drawings and then a five month follow-up. And they give me four huneybees.

Hmm.. What else would I do for four hunnneybees?

Make me an offer.

Keith.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Would you watch this movie?

Hi bloggers,

Hypothetically speaking, if I wrote a screenplay about a physics student who figured out how to open a portal to an alternate reality, and then when he goes there, it turns out that everything there is really really boring, and then he goes back and appreciates his own life or something, but then when the people there find out that our reality is much more exciting then they go crazy and chase him around a lot and try to steal the antimatter generator and it turns really exciting, and then maybe they realize that there's too much excitement already and they stop and then everythings okay, anyway, would you watch it?



Anyway, how is everything with you? I see from your blogs that things are pretty exciting. Several of you are going to run the NYCM. Some of you are living it up in Japan. All pretty exciting stuff. Mine too. A few weeks ago, my advisor figured out that science in academics sucks and decided to live like the jet-set in sunny California. So I kindof started a new job. I get to try to finish up my PhD at a school in the Med Center, while still technically a student at UH. The good part is that the equipment I'll be using is practically the greatest microscope ever created. Furthermore, students in the lab I'm in actually graduate. Sometimes it seems that nobody at UH actually graduates.

What else, what else... Still running, I guess it's been a while since the last update. It has been difficult. Motivation is somewhat low, and energy is on the floor. I ran Monday and Tuesday this week, and 6 miles this morning. So, back to the old slumpbusting routine - short mileage, running everyday, breathing the fresh air, etc. Motivation follows action, not the other way around.

Okay, I'll update more tomorrow.
Sleepy time.
Keith.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Are you an "old school" runner?

Hey bloggers.

My buddy J-money linked to this article in the New York Times about Modern Day Marathoners. Now, people run with less mileage, sometimes as little as possible. Many people opt for the "marathon survival plan" with one 16 miler, one 18 miler, and one 21 miler, with some junk miles here and there. And sometimes they voluntarily take walking breaks early in the race, before they have walking breaks thrust upon them.

I think maybe I'm a little old school on these issues. I don't like walk-breaks, and the goal for me is to be fit enough to run the whole way. But that seems to be the double standard: I'm not allowed to walk, but if you want to walk during the marathon, or even walk the whole way, I still think you're doing a great thing. What a hypocrite I am!

I even think it's okay for me to run if I'm a little bit injured. Minor injuries seem to work themselves out with a little bit of running. But for other people, I find myself advising against it, citing my 6 marathons of experience. :)

But then again, maybe I'm somewhere in the middle of the old school runner and the modern marathoner. A lot of people who think of themselves as an "old school runner" think that the people who take the walk breaks shouldn't even be out there, and should just run 5Ks or a distance that they're in shape for. Many of those "old school" runners rub me the wrong way. Those folks that write us slow people off as lazy and weak are out there too, calling themselves "old school." They don't bother me too much, they're just one of my obstacles.

Anyway bloggers, like it says in the song,

If you want to be me, be me
If you want to be you, be you
There's a million things to do
yeah you know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

Rock on blogosphere!
Love, Keith.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

3rd place at the CLFC prediction run

I ran the CLFC prediction run this morning and I wanted to win it sooo bad. My fastest times are always more predictable than an average time, so I picked 51:00, which corresponds to 8:30 m/m. And most of the time on my standard training runs, I don't even wear my watch, so who knows how fast I'm going. At the end, I finished at 50:37.

I started out with the rabbits, running with Jason and Theresa and Kevin and Coach Peter. When I'm racing and they're just training, is probably the only time I'll be running with those peeps. Also, I overheard that Peter also predicted 51 minutes, and he trains a lot more than me, so I figured he'd know his pace pretty well.

Each of us run those trails frequently so we know where the mile splits are, and Jason called out what he though our pace was, and he was being so accurate, saying 7:59 and 7:55, so I thought he must be right. On the other hand, Peter said later that he wasn't sure if he was joking or not. The group broke up at Pine Gully Park since nobody really knew the exact route to take and everybody wanted to go a different direction. I stayed with Peter since he was running the route which I always counted as the 6 mile route.

I think I ran a positive split, and it felt like I was fading in mile 4 and 5. Peter dropped back to offer encouragement to somebody and caught up to me with about a mile left. Coming into the end, I felt like we were a little on the slow side of 51:00 so I tried my best to pass Peter so I'd be slightly closer to 51:00 than he was. He knew I was racing him since he didn't let me go. I think he had a lot left in the tank. In the end, we were a little fast and since he was faster, I was closer to 51:00 and got third place! Whoo hoo!

With no visible timing methods, Jim and Hung ran within 13 seconds of their prediction time, and all three of us got a 25$ giftcard to the Runner's Link.

Keith.