Learn | Make | Fix | Run

The past week was full of surprises, from headphone headaches to procuring personal bests.  Headphones I received my new earbuds. They seemed to work well the first two days; then, one earbud did not pair. When I attempted to re-pair the earbuds, something was oozing out of the earbud or charger. Since then, I have received a replacement, and it works better so far. Maybe I had a dud. Garmin Running Badges This year, Garmin has been awarding quarterly badges for running 300 km (186.5 mi.) They also have an Ultimate Running 2023 Badge for completing all quarterly challenges. I earned both only 27 days into the fourth quarter. I was so surprised that I achieved this badge so quickly. Monthly Mileage PR and Counting Considering I earned the quarterly running badge, it is no surprise that I was near a monthly mileage PR. With two days left in October, I have completed 215 miles. I am on track to surpass 225 miles by the end of the month. My previous PR was 208 miles in March 2023. Prog...

The other day, our air fryer was working. Then it all of a sudden turned off and would not turn on. It turns out that the thermal fuse burned out. I think I know how we burned it out. I have always been a stickler when to unplug LCD projectors. Whenever I need to unplug an LCD projector that has been in use, I wait for the fan to turn off before I unplug it. I was told that it is better for the lens and the bulb to allow everything to cool with the fan before cutting the power. We have a habit of setting our air fryer for a longer cooking time than is needed. We pull our food out before the timer turns off and do not replace the food basket all the way into the air fryer. This means the fan doesn’t kick back on to remove the heat in the unit. I believe this is why the thermal fuse blew. With some help from YouTube, I confirmed that our thermal fuse was bad and ordered a replacement. Our air fryer is up and running again. Now, when we are finished with the air fryer, we put the basket b...

My new headphones did not arrive in time for my Saturday long run. I had a lot of time to do math as I ran. I was thinking about pacing for CIM. I was running in heart rate zone 2 and averaging 10:30/mi. My original goal for CIM was to run 9:20/mi. However, I am still determining my pace for the race. I started calculations with a 10:00/mi. pace and determined that it would take 262 minutes to run a marathon at that pace. (10 x 26.2 = 262) That’s 4 hours and 22 minutes, and it would be a PB for me. Then I realized that for every minute faster, you could take 26.2 minutes of the total time. (You move the decimal place over to the left one place.) A 9:00/mi. pace would be about 3 hours and 56 minutes. Extending this principle, for every 1/10 of a minute (6 seconds) your average pace drops, you can take 2.62 minutes off your total time. Next, I realized that for every 30 seconds faster, you could take 13.1 minutes of the total time. A 9:30/mi. would be about 4 hours and 9 minutes. After t...

I have reached one of my favorite parts of Hal Higdon’s Advanced Marathon 1 Plan. I completed my first of three 20-mile long runs. In my mind, I am a taper away from a marathon. My work over the next four weeks of training is icing on the cake. Considering my recent history of stomach issues, I am glad I can practice fueling and hydration on last Saturday’s long run and dial it in for the remaining two. I bought some Nuun Lemon Lime Endurance since it will be served at CIM. The flavor was just right, not too strong or weak, and not too sweet. The Nuun had 16 grams of carbs (the SOS Hydration I had been using had 6) but half the sodium as SOS. It worked as well. I drank the Nuun every mile on the half-mile starting at mile 4.5, but my 16 fl. oz. soft flask only got me through 16.5 miles. I’m contemplating using a double scoop or taking two soft flasks. If I go with the double scoop, I will likely run out of water since I have been drinking all 1.5L on my long runs. There are water fount...

Just when you think your training is going in the wrong direction, it changes direction. My recent half-marathon experience was not the race I wanted. I was nowhere near my A, B, or C goal. It made me ponder if I picked a proper-sized marathon goal pace of 9:20/mi. On Tuesday, I needed help keeping my 9-mile base run in Z2, which made me question my easy pace. My Wednesday hill repeats felt like a slog, but I hit all my interval times. My Friday marathon pace run at 9:22/mi. was close to my original marathon pace of 9:20/mi, but I finished the run wondering how to sustain that for another 15 miles. Saturday’s 19-mile long run looked good for the first downhill and flat 8 miles. The next 1.5 flat miles to the turnaround point and the 9.5-mile return were not as good. It did get progressively hotter. I preferred a faster average pace but kept it in Z2 or lower for 92% of the run. The lack of wind meant less dust and pollen, which made this better than the 17-mile long run two weeks prior...

My portfolio is complete, and my LinkedIn profile has been updated to showcase my background in instructional design. I invite my blog readers and Instagram followers to take a sneak peek before I announce I am open to work on LinkedIn. Catholic school administrators are unsung heroes.  Quite often, they need to do the work of an entire district office. Not only are they responsible for ensuring students are learning. They are responsible for promoting the school’s Catholic identity, hiring teachers and staff, onboarding new employees, approving payroll, custodial work (when something needs to be cleaned up or repaired and no one else can help), fundraising, budget creation and monitoring, approving expenses, reporting to stakeholders, capital improvement projects, marketing, retention, staff evaluations, and the list goes on. The number of employees reporting directly to a Catholic elementary school principal is staggering. Throw in a pandemic that shut down all schools and forced...

I learned many logistical lessons last weekend (some not race-related). It was not the race I wanted, but I would rather learn these lessons now instead of learning them on December 3 at CIM. Here are the lessons I learned. Give Yourself More Time before the Race While I gave myself enough time before the race, I did not anticipate the backup of cars on the off-ramp. I should have considered how long it would take to pay for parking. Since I was in race mode, I only had my driver’s license and one credit card when I attempted to pay for parking. My Discover card was accepted at the convention center parking lot the day before and was not accepted in the parking lot where I parked. (I thought the same organization operated both lots.) I needed to return to my car and get my other credit card. After waiting in line for the second time, I was late for the start of my corral. I had enough time to go to the bathroom before I got in the last corral, but I did not have time to warm up. Being ...