Learn | Make | Fix | Run

Last Saturday was the end of my 10K training block. I was supposed to run a 10K race or time trial. While the energy of a race combined with chip timing is fun, there were no affordable 10K races nearby last weekend. I opted for the time trial, and I am glad I did. Saturday was not the day for my best PB. The training volume for the last week was reduced. My recovery run on the day before my time trial felt good. During my 8K time trial two weeks ago, I went out too fast. I was much better with my pace at the start this time. Around the second mile, my legs felt heavy. I was running into difficulty fine-tuning my pace. I could not find a steady state to hit my splits. I kept slowing down and speeding up each tenth of a mile. In the middle of the third mile, I decided to try my attempt another day. I made the time trial into a 5K and picked up the pace for the last portion to make it more of a 3-mile pace run. Looking back, I should have fueled better the day before and the morning of t

Recently I needed to help someone with a MacBook Pro that would not start up. The computer shut down unexpectedly and displayed the “Your computer restarted because of a problem. Press a key or wait a few seconds to continue starting up.” message.  We let the computer wait a few seconds, and the message kept coming back. After six automatic restart attempts, the computer displayed the missing startup disk icon. The disk drive on the computer was rather full. The user was trying to empty the trash when the computer crashed. The computer was able to boot into the macOS Recovery system. At first, I tried using Disk Utility to check for and repair disk errors. This did not solve the issue. Using the terminal, I tried to delete some files to make more space, but I got the message, “No space left on device.” I stumbled upon a post on Stack Exchange  that solved the issue. Essentially, the process was to delete the virtual memory volume to make room to delete other large files on the computer

Last week was the final week of 10K training before tapering for this Saturday’s time trial. The summer heat arrived simultaneously with the hardest training block in this cycle. The week culminated with 13 straight days of running 73.3 miles.  Wednesday’s 45-minute tempo run set the stage for a training breakthrough/eureka moment. I gather that tempo runs should be run based on effort, ideally over hilly terrain. Interval runs are preferably run on the track with a concentration on pace. However, I find myself getting caught up with the suggested pace for my tempo runs without considering the terrain. This resulted in a tough but good tempo run on Wednesday. In hindsight, I overdid it.  Thursday was a 12x 400-meter interval session. I could tell from the first interval that it would be a tough day; I missed my split by a few seconds, and my heart rate was already higher than normal. Halfway through the session, I stopped trying to hit my splits. In laps seven and eight, I realized I w

It’s so nice to have a working gas gauge again. I took a few days this past week to drop the gas tank to replace the fuel sending unit. Overall, it was a relatively smooth project. I’ll share some of the highlights that I learned from the process. Try to Use Up as Much Fuel as Possible Before Starting For the last couple of years, I filled the car with gas when the trip odometer hit 250 miles. Normally I have another 60 miles left in the tank, which I assume to be about 3 gallons. I forgot that I had a long highway run on the current tank of gas, which meant the car was more fuel efficient, and I had about four gallons left in the tank. It wasn’t a bid deal dropping the tank, but it did take a long time to siphon out four gallons of gas, which brings me to the next point. Use a Transfer Pump or a Large Diameter Siphon Hose I had a tiny siphon hose that liked to curl while in the tank. It took forever to drain the gas tank. A larger siphon hose or a transfer pump would have been a time

Today’s post doesn’t have new, earth-shattering information. It’s a simple reminder to get out the door. Last week I had an 11 x 400-meter workout on the schedule. I wasn’t looking forward to the workout, and I kept stalling. The hardest part wasn’t the miles. It wasn’t the intervals. It wasn’t the speed. It was getting out the door. Once I was out the door, I easily completed the workout. It’s a reminder that most runners can run the distance, speed, and/or intervals in their workout; they just need to get out the door. What do you do to get out the door? Please share in the comments below.

This winter, the mode door on the 2002 Saturn L300 started to behave erratically. It was only blowing air out of the defrost vents. Since it was winter, this was the preferred location, and we let it be. As someone who doesn’t drive the car regularly, I forgot it was broken. Now, let’s fast forward to last weekend, the hottest days of 2023. I was reminded that the dashboard vents did not blow air anymore. Online research suggested looking at the mode door actuator and that, most likely, a gear was worn or split inside the actuator. Visual inspection did indeed show that the gear was slipping and not turning the mode door through all five positions. I removed the actuator and manually rotated the cam to turn the mode door axle so the air would flow through the front dashboard vents. While this fix will work for the summer when we don’t need the defrost, it will not work when it is colder. I opened the actuator, and the gear to drive the axle for the mode door was split. The Saturn is ol

Last week started out with a recovery run followed by core exercises. Toe strain developed after the run and into the night. The symptoms were very similar to when I injured myself during marathon training in April. I took two days off from running. I did not need to ice my foot, but I did take a fair amount of ibuprofen. My Wednesday run was pain-free, and I returned to my planned training schedule. I have been working to determine the cause of my toe pain. In April, I thought the culprit for my pain was due to cramming my foot into my shoe. However, this time I was meticulous in putting on my shoes. There are two more similarities with this injury when compared to April. Both occurred after a recovery run with core exercises, which leads me to the conclusion that my recovery run, the core exercises, or both are causing me pain. My recovery run may be changing my running form since my pace is much slower than my easy pace. It’s also possible that I put more weight through my toe durin