Learn | Make | Fix | Run

Last week, the wind wreaked havoc on my run, but not in the way you might expect. Yes, there was a headwind as I went out on my loop, but there was a tailwind on the way back. As always, the headwind felt like it hindered my forward progress more than the slight boost from the tailwind. In the end, it should roughly balance out, and the wind wasn’t causing me issues keeping my heart rate in zone 2. The allergens in the air that came with the wind had a detrimental effect. I ran three loops, and halfway through the second loop, I realized I was having difficulty getting a full breath of air. My airways were restricted from the allergens, and I could not provide enough oxygen to my muscles to work at my typical easy pace. Race Week This week is my tune-up half marathon. I’ll run the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Jose Half Marathon on Sunday in preparation for CIM. If you’re running either, please let me know in the comments below.

I’m finally coming to terms with my long run pace and HR training. I know you shouldn’t associate a particular pace with a heart rate zone. There are a variety of factors that can affect heart rate. However, the Run With Hal app gives you an “overall” quality letter grade, a “last 9 days” letter grade, and a compliance score with each workout. Sadly, I am motivated to keep my compliance score between 100% and 120% and my letter grade an A. If I want to earn an A and compliance greater than or equal to 100%, I must run at least 10:30/mile for my base runs and long runs. To reap the benefits of heart rate training, I need to keep it in heart rate zone 2 (Z2). I’m okay on the base runs in my flat neighborhood, but it falls apart on my long runs on the trail. Last weekend, I stayed in Z2 and averaged 10:28/mi. on the downhill (five miles) and the flat (six miles) and 11:49/mi. on the uphill (five miles). It’s not steep, but the 160-foot ascent over five miles makes me 80 seconds slower per

Google Sites and I have spent a lot of time together this past week. I have decided to use Google Sites to host my portfolio. It’s been a week of amazement and frustration. What you can do these days without knowing how to code websites is impressive. Conversely, it’s so frustrating when you want to do something, and you don’t have access to the HTML or CSS. I learned how to make a website in 1996. I used Pico and coded line by line. No syntax coloring, no auto-close for tags, no responsive layouts, and no 12 or 16-column grids. In the late 90’s, I was using Microsoft FrontPage just as it was becoming mainstream. I also remember using Dreamweaver during that time as well. In the late 2000’s, I learned PHP and MySQL for creating web pages in Dreamweaver. I got my partner teachers on the web with WordPress classroom websites and eventually Google Sites. They were using TeacherWeb. I am used to more control when creating websites. However, I know the tradeoff for control is convenience. U

I know I have already posted “ The Plan is Merely a Guide ,” but I am taking that to heart as I move into my next three weeks of marathon training. Recently, my friend @run_for_clarity asked me about my experience with the Run with Hal app. He started a week with a rest day (which was preceded by a long run). Then, the app scheduled two recovery days in a row, followed by a speed day, base day, pace day, and long run. He ultimately looked at the posted schedule on the Hal Higdon website, which looked much “ saner ,” and rearranged his runs to match the website. Last week, I finished a step-back week with a 7 mile marathon pace run on Friday, a 10 mile long run on Saturday, and a 3 mile recovery run on Sunday. Monday’s run was scheduled as an 8 mile marathon pace run, and a 5x hill interval session was scheduled for Tuesday. I was puzzled by two intense workouts back-to-back. Wednesday was a rest day, Thursday was an 8 mile base run, Friday was a 3 mile recovery run, Saturday was a 16

Our house has two sourdough starters, and I tried adding a third to the mix last weekend. I recently changed the starter on a 2002 Saturn L300. We should replace the car, but for now, replacing the starter at home was better than replacing it in a parking lot (provided we could leave the car and work on it in the lot) or paying for a tow home. My online research indicated that it was a challenging project because of the starter’s location. It was under the exhaust manifold and over the transmission. It was only accessible from the right wheel well and required the removal of the tensioner and alternator. Two wiring harness brackets needed to be removed to allow the starter to be removed and reinstalled. The starter was tough to see, but there was a small, quarter-inch inspection hole to look through to get a swivel socket attachment on to disconnect the starter and positive battery cables. It took three hours to get the starter out and two hours to get it back in. However, we have peac

This week, I had access to a scale. I weighed myself nude before and after a 7-mile run. I did not drink water during my run. I was three pounds lighter after the run. Then, I consumed 32 fluid ounces of Gatorade. I weighed myself again nude, and I was two pounds heavier. I realize that sweat rates change based on environmental conditions, but I was surprised that I had lost three pounds of water weight. I wanted to approximate the fluid ounces of water that I lost. I was reminded of high school chemistry class when the internet refreshed my memory that one milligram of water equals one milliliter (and one milliliter equals one cubic centimeter). While I enjoyed that walk down memory lane, I found a rule of thumb that 1 liter of water was approximately 2 pounds of water, and in this game of horseshoes and hand grenades, a liter of water was close enough to a quart of water. I lost about 1.5 liters (48 fluid ounces) of water in my run – three pounds – and refueled with 1 liter (32 fluid

This week, I spent time putting the finishing touches on my Articulate Rise 360 Food Scrap Recycling project and my Articulate 360 Storyline Marathon Heart Rate Training project. My 30-day trial is scheduled to end today, and I wanted to make sure all of the assets I needed were downloaded and functional before I’m cut off. The lead image for this post was borne from feedback on my flagship project. There is an option for the user to ask the coach for advice in many of the scenarios. However, with a busy background, the phone on the left became hard to find. This is just one example of my work this week. As I put on the finishing touches, I asked, “This or that?” This week, I learned how to use Google Cloud. Apparently, I have a bucket, and in the bucket, I have my portfolio files. I feel like a professional web developer when the files that I have stored start with https://storage.googleapis.com/  I continue to write descriptions about my two portfolio projects and am very excited to