Weekend Update

     This should have been an update on the progress of the solar air heaters. Unfortunately, I still don't have the polycarbonate. even more unfortunate is that I had to spend the majority of Saturday working on projects that had to be done before winter hits.
     Last winter, one of the inside valves to the outside faucets didn't work, so the outside faucet split. In the spring, I replaced the faucet, but apparently, another valve that was attached to it was also damaged, so even though I had turned the water off to the swamp cooler it continued to flow. That wouldn't have been a big deal if the float valve in the swamp cooler had been working properly, which it wasn't. But that wouldn't have been a big deal either if the overflow hose wasn't leaking, which it was. But that wouldn't have been a big deal if it were located to one side of the duct to the swamp cooler. Unfortunately, it isn't, so water pooled up and eventually started leaking through the shingles, into the attic, eventually making it to the hardwood floors on the main floor.
     While searching for the location of the leak in the attic, I also discovered a couple places where the roof isn't sealed and there are a few gaping holes for daylight or weather to come in. Oh yeah, when they re-roofed the house before we bought it, apparently they decided to leave the mess in the attic, that, by the way, isn't properly insulated. When the house was re-roofed, they also neglected to put up any rain gutters. The previous owner ended up in the hospital on account of this oversight. Not wanting to follow suit, I put up rain gutters over the front and back door the month we moved in. Unfortunately, when the house was re-roofed, they didn't do the overhang properly, so moisture flowed between the rain gutters and the house, leaving us with a little more ice on the steps than we wanted. Also, apparently the flowerbed that is part of the house (it's connected the the chimney and made of the same rock) had previously been protected by rain gutters. Since we've lived there, it seems to have started falling apart. I think it's due to the rain and melted snow from the roof dripping into the bed, then freezing and expanding...
     So, Saturday started out with adding flashing between the "drip lip" and the house to channel the water into the rain gutters. After that, I cleaned the roofing debris out of the attic, and also removed a newspaper from Christmas day of 1966, a roll of old carpet, a bunch of pieces of wood that were just compressing the fiberglass insulation, as well as 12 awg romex, coax cable, and miscellaneous garbage. I think that next week I will blow in a some insulation!
     Then I headed to Home Depot and Lowes to get roof sealer, more rain gutters, and a new valve. While I was there, Dean (the man who is planning to do a half ironman the year he turns 50) called to see if I could help him move some equipment from his business to house and storage shed. I only mention this to show the time taken out of the day - it was around 2 hours - and to remind myself about the triathlon that I'm training for. Side note: I swam 32 laps on Thursday! That's a whole mile!!!
     By then it was around 2 p.m. and definitely time for lunch, a little rest and a shower. Next project - the broken and apparently leaky valve. This could have been an easy project if the pipe from outside came straight into the valve inside and if access to the valve was through something larger than a 6"x4" semi-round hole in the ceiling 8 inches above a shelf... Thankfully, I never got into the cussing thing, 'cause if I had, I'd have been swearing up a storm - which wouldn't have been good, since my family was watching Apollo 13 right next to my suffering. Anyway, the pipe comes in, turns 90°, six inches later it turns 90° again and then goes to a leaky valve that doesn't close. I discovered the 'leaky' part when I moved some board games with water damaged boxes out of the way so I could reach up into the 6"x4" hole. More than 2 hours later, I put the finishing touches on what seems to be a simple fix - replacing a 50 year old valve.
     Just now, as I thought about the next project, I wondered if I had dinner on Saturday - then I remembered the delicious french toast that Jeri Dawn made, with the homemade jam, that Jeri Dawn made too, on top. After she left for the Relief Society broadcast, I went upstairs and ate all of the left overs - they were just as good as the first course!
     On to the next project - rain gutters. Rain gutters would be a really easy thing to install if you had scaffolding and if your only source of light weren't an LED head lamp...Oh well, it's done for now.
     I didn't patch holes in the roof, but overall, I'd say that Saturday was one of the more productive days this year. Now, if only I had put in a few miles of training...
     I needed a picture for the post, so I'm adding a picture of something that I found while retrieving the newspaper - a BLACK WIDOW! It's not the picture I took, since it didn't turn out so good, but this is what it looked like.

TOU Marathon ReHash

     I guess it's time to over analyze the TOU Marathon now. Well, maybe just report how it went so that I don't forget later. Sometimes I think of something that should be learned from an experience and move on, possibly forgetting some tidbit that may be much more valuable at a later date.
     My mileage and taper were basically what I had hoped for. My last couple weeks may have included a little too much junk food (I had some ice cream in the final two weeks, ate some cookie dough, and even had a bowl of cereal before going to bed a few times) but for the most part I felt and feel pretty good about it. My final two days went fairly well, I got enough rest and enough carbohydrates. The morning of the race also went as planned - though there was moment of doubt about whether or not I was prepared for the weather, since I woke up before my alarm sounded, due to the loud rain!
     Travis came to pick us up (my mom and I) at the prescribed time and we joined a very long line to get on the bus at the park as scheduled. The lines at the port-a-potties were a little long and we barely got our clothes onto the bus before it left - Travis says my bag was the last on the bus. The weather was beautiful which meant that it was a little warmer that I had expected, especially after the storms. So people were probably removing more clothes than they had planned so early. In that final hustle, I didn't grab a banana out of my bag for Travis and I hadn't eaten one either. We were still chatting when the gun went off, so my mom went towards the back and Travis and I went forward.
     We weaved in and out of people for the first couple of miles. The first mile was right around 8 minutes. It felt a little slow, but it was work moving around everyone. The next mile was a little better (around 7:18) - people were dropping clothes left and right. We had hoped to do the first couple of miles a little slow and then get on track for 7:17 the rest of the way. By mile three, we decided that it was time to start working together (as there was no tailwind - there should have been, and there always has been, but not this time.)
     I think that Travis lead during the even miles and I lead during the odd miles. He seemed to pick up the pace when he was in front and I worked on maintaining a heart rate between 179 and 181. We had one mile at 6:27 - which I didn't think was accurate, and later found that Sasha Pachev (10th time running TOU) felt the same about the distance not being correct in some of those miles. Nevertheless, our mile times were probably a little shorter with Travis in the lead. We developed a simple way for him to check our pace when he was in front: he stuck out whichever arm is to the side that he would be glancing back to, I then stuck my arm on that side straight out for "maintain", down for "slow down", and up for "go faster". It worked well even though I think that the first time Travis tried to check I was enjoying the fall leaves and missed his signal.
     The pace felt good and our time was pretty much on target (maybe helped by the solitary mile with a tail wind.) As we came out of the canyon it was nice to see spectators there to cheer us on. I didn't expect to see anyone I knew at that point but looked just in case. As we turned on to Hollow Road, I ran a little close to a girl who was standing a little to far into the road as I passed - her mom told her to move back. Also on Hollow Road, I ran a nice shiny black sports car off the road. Certified races are measured inside corner to inside corner, so that is the route you're supposed to run. When I saw the shiny black sports car driving toward me on a closed road, I held my ground. I didn't quite touch his mirror, but by the time I passed he was more than half off the road. I'm sure that I seemed like the jerk, but sometimes I think that closed roads shouldn't have traffic (for safety reasons, just in case a driver doesn't move out of the way of a runner.) Somebody from work suggested a Jackie Chan 'run on the car' might have been appropriate. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.
     As I passed Travis at mile 14, he said he was pooped. I asked what he wanted to do since we were seconds off pace and he said, "Go for our goal." So I picked up the pace and heart rate a bit. At mile 15, Travis didn't move ahead as quickly as he normally did. When I passed him, I tried to do it right on the mile mark to get our lap time. When he passed me, normally he did it a little sooner. It should be noted that at the 15 mile mark, we were 4 second ahead of a 3:10:59 finish!
     At mile 16 (where I had the run in with the shiny black sports car) I went ahead but quickly noticed that Travis was dropping off. It kind of seemed that way the most of the time - when he lead, he went fast, when he followed, he dropped off, but it was worse this time. I could tell that he was struggling and slowed significantly so that he could draft and I can't really say that I didn't welcome the slowed pace. We had lost 26 second during mile 16 and it seemed inevitable that we wouldn't make our goal time to BQ. People that we had passed 5 miles back started passing us, chatting it up with each other. One man kept riding by on his bicycle, giving his wife whatever she needed - very nice, but against the rules for personal support vehicles, baby strollers, roller blades, bicycles, motorcycles to be on the course. We kept trudging along. At mile 17, Travis didn't go ahead of me (apparently he had said to go on without him.) I glanced back and he was about 15 yards behind.
     Jeri Dawn, Sierra, Mialee and Nikell were at the Maverick in Nibley. At this point I was running behind a man who appeared to be in his 40's. Jeri Dawn called him a poor soul, but we traded leads a few time, I wasn't just drafting freely.     She asked were Travis was - I said "50 yards back." I had decided that I would check my time at mile 18. If I was near 2:11, then I figured that I had 8.2 miles to go and 1 hour to do it in, it was still possible. Unfortunately, my time was 2:13:18 - mile 18 took 8:10. I had more than 2 minutes to make up with the hardest part of the course ahead (not just the end, but the ascents were about to start - it's not really fair to the hills to call these ascents hills.) That meant 7 minute miles... I looked back thinking that if I could see Travis, I would wait for him. I couldn't, so I hoped that he was still moving.
     Mile 19 - 8:48 - not good. Apparently 16 miles was the upper limit of running near my lactic threshold. My calves were full of lactic acid - strange looking back, since they haven't felt sore at all, only painful until less than an hour after the race. I could tell that I was going to be coming into cramps soon, so I started eating bananas at every aid station starting at mile 13. That meant that of the three "Snickers Energy Bars" I brought, I only consumed one. I realized that I wasn't going to be qualifying for Boston, now it was just a fight for a respectable time. My legs were a little heavy and my heart a little sad - I knew that by setting our goal too high, I had destroyed Travis' time and maybe even his experience. He has always been pretty invincible to me, so hearing him say "I'm pooped!" must have been a little humbling, but he is greater still in my eyes.
     What followed was more of the same, people passing, me watching, trying to keep up, but I didn't have it. I felt like I still had energy but I couldn't get my body to use it fast enough. We all have random thoughts that seem directed at our current situation, so to say that it didn't cross my mind to stop running would be a lie, but it never crossed my mind to stop racing. Travis' wife and in-laws (McMillan's) were in Providence - cheering everyone on. I didn't expect to see anyone there, so that was an unexpected boost. Shortly thereafter, however, I succumbed to pain in my calves and walked for a minute or two - I honestly didn't know which during the race, but think it was probably only one since my time for mile 22 was only a minute more than mile 21.
     That's how the race finished - I walked a minute in mile 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. But that isn't the whole story, it gets better and worse.
     Tyler Child (deacon in my ward) was sitting outside his grandma's house - seeing him gave me another little boost in mile 23. At this point I was running in River Heights and "My Front Porch Looking In" came on. As I got to the part, "And the most beautiful girl holding both of them..." tears came to my eyes. As the song ended, I could see Jeri Dawn at the top of the hill waiting for me - literally. What a welcomed sight - the green striped shirt and my brown hair, green eyed wife waiting for me. She ran with me to the bottom of the hill where the rest of my family had just arrived in time for her to make it up the hill.I'm not a pretty sight here, but she sure was! Mile 24 was the fastest of the last 5 because of her.
     There aren't a whole lot of pictures of the spectators, but if marathoners ran with cameras and took pictures of the scenery they enjoyed most during the race, it wouldn't be the fall leaves in the canyon, or the fish jumping in the river, or even the sun first entering the valley. No, their film would be full of photos of the people who came to support them on their 26.2 mile journey, even though they could only see them for a brief moment of the race.
     Miles 25 and 26 were full of pulsing shocks in the front and back of my quads, as the muscles attempted to cramp up, every step - 360 pulse per minute that I could distinctly feel, knowing it wasn't going to stop until I gave in. The last 5 miles I averaged over 10 minutes per mile, but just knowing people were going to be there at the end that I knew, I picked it up for the last little bit. It didn't make a dent in my time, but you can't hold back at that point, it's either run hard or cry hard, take your pick.

TOU Marathon (Top of Utah)

     First things first: My mom finished a marathon on her first attempt after living 52 years and never running more than 1 mile (at age 40) and she did it with an amazingly respectable time of 5:23:22.
     As for me, well, 3:34:13 after the start - no BQ. Travis and I made a valiant attempt at qualifying for the Boston Marathon, but in the end, I think that it mostly cost us time. Up to Mile 15 we were right on target, averaging 7:17 per mile. We lost about 26 seconds in the next mile and it only got worse. Somewhere between 16 and 17, apparently Travis had told me to go on ahead but I didn't hear him. A mile or so later, I thought that I had to give it one last shot and left him anyway. I was way off. My average mile after 16 was 9:32 and Travis' was 11:15.
     While finishing a marathon should always be a wonderful experience, it doesn't necessarily come without things you would change. Hindsight offers an great opportunity for learning and wishing. Now that I know we weren't ready to qualify for Boston just yet, I wish that I could start the race over with Travis with a different goal in mind. I'm a firm believer that you don't know what you can do until you give it everything that you've got, but I also firmly believe that you can learn something from every experience. But now, I wish that we had come down the canyon a little slower - maybe and 8:00 pace. I'm confident that we both could have finished fairly strong with a time closer to 3:25:00.
     I guess that we've inadvertently left ourselves room for improvement. I recognize that qualifying for Boston isn't going to be as easy as just running another marathon - it may take another year or two, or it could happen in Ogden next may. More importantly, however, more members of my family are interested in running. My nephew Jordan (in the background of the photo) says that he wants to run the Ogden Marathon with me next year. My sister Angie (Jordan's mom) thinks she may try the same. My dad (the non-exerciser of the family) seems to even be remotely interested in it. Darrin will be there too! If I have a choice of qualifying for Boston or running with Jordan, I will choose to run with Jordan. Before the time comes to make the choice however, I will train for BQ.
     Out of respect for those who have taken the time to read my blogs, I won't bore you with any more numbers at this time besides...

Boston - Here I come!

     Originally, I set out to complete a marathon. However, like most projects, this one has had a little scope creep. I didn't know that you don't have to train for a full year before running a marathon if you're fairly active, so I accomplished my goal of running a marathon 4 months early and may have done one a month early if I hadn't been in a car on the way back from Glendale, AZ the day of the SLC Marathon.
     I learned a few things the day I ran the Ogden Marathon that made me consider attempting to qualify for the Boston Marathon during the Top of Utah Marathon. Before then, I didn't know that I could sustain a heart rate over 169 bpm for an extended period of time. During my training, on my long runs I would walk for one minute out of every 20. Sometimes my heart rate would creep up to 172 and then I would walk a minute. During the walk, it would drop to 163 or so, then ramp back up to 169 during the run and repeat... During the last nine miles of the Ogden Marathon, by heart rate was between 179 and 181. My average for that race was 173 with a time of 3:43:54 (about 1:52 per half.) I felt fine and so I wondered how long I sustain a heart rate that high.
     Four weeks later, in the Bear Lake Half Marathon, I found out. Though I regretted it around mile three and at the end of the race, I started out fast and had my heart rate up to 181 in the first couple of minutes. My average heart rate for the entire race was 179, with a time of 1:37:15 - almost a 15 minute improvement over the Ogden Marathon split time. I guess that I ended up losing about 2 minutes over the last three or four miles, but my post race recovery was very short and I had no ill side affects.
     Two months after that, in the Top of Utah Half Marathon, I averaged 178 bpm and decreased my time another 7 minutes to 1:30:03. Double that time and throw in 10 minutes of slowing down or whatever and I could still qualify for Boston! The TOU Marathon adds about 7 miles of down hill to the front and 6 miles of minor ups, and downs and mostly flats to the end. I think I can do it.
     In August though, I was afraid that I was more ready in June than I would be now, with the weeks off hiking. But my average beats per mile (not to be confused with beats per minute in the previous paragraphs) is lower in August and September than it was in June, as well as my average mph is higher in August and September than it was in June. My average mph leading up to this race is 1.26 MPH faster than the last marathon. Building up to the last one, the last 3.5 months I averaged 6.94 mph - 26.2/6.94 = 3 hours and 46.5 minutes. (my time was 3:43.9.) For this one I'm at 8.2 mph - 26.2/8.2 = 3 hours and 11.7 minutes. If I can cut 0.7 minutes off of that, I'm good. For the previous marathon, I spent a lot of time on a treadmill with a 2% incline. For this one, I made my normal runs with hills, a lot steeper than 2%, but then I also went down them...
     Sure, this may all be over analyzed, and it may be extremely hot on Saturday (though the forecast is calling for rain) adding quite a bit of time to the race, but on most projects I spend more time thinking about them than actually doing them. I can't really do much about a project while I'm laying in bed, driving, sitting in a boring meeting, running (except the marathon), or eating. In this case though, I've put in the time, now all that remains is to actually run it to see if I can shave off 33 minutes from the last one!

1000 Miles!

     Sometime during my run yesterday, I crossed over the 1000 mile mark in my marathon training. Last year, on Sunday, September 16th I read the results of the TOU Marathon. That day I decided that I was going to complete it in 2008. The 17th, I started my training with 3.1 miles on a treadmill.
     Since then, I have:
      Come up with a plan
      Trained
      Learned a little
      Modified my plan
      Trained some more
      Learned some more
      Adjusted my intensity
      Taken a few weeks off
      Learned more
      Gone on business trips to Glendale, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada where I continued training
      Got off the treadmill
      Run my first marathon (Ogden in May - 3:43:54)

      Run two half marathons (Bear Lake in June - 1:37:15 and TOU in August - 1:30:03)
      Convinced a couple others to join me for TOU (Travis and Mom, Carol was already going to run it and was with us at the half)
      Gone on a fifty mile backpacking trip that turned into 75 miles after putting in more than a marathon to "rescue" a lost scout and a 14 mile hike summiting King's Peak (highest in Utah)
      Taken a week off backpacking on the coast in Washington      Trained some more.
     I've logged the miles dedicated to training for this race and this week I topped 1000 miles! I've run 155 days, and averaged 6.5 miles per run. I never would have imagined running 1000 miles in my life. Talk about milestones...
     I hope that it doesn't sound like I'm bragging. One of the things that I have learned in all of this is that anybody who can run a mile can run 26. (Actually, around mile 9 of the Ogden Marathon, somebody was displaying a sign that said, "Any fool can run, but it takes a special kind of idiot to run a marathon.)
     Among the other things that I learned are the following:
  1. 26.2 miles isn't hard if you have food and water, but 19.8 is if you don't.
  2. Junk food taste great, but it smells even better after a 15 mile run.
  3. Brownies aren't really good for running, but I can eat anything I want on Sundays and get it all out of my system by running 6.2 miles Monday morning. However, that 6.2 miles is a lot easier if I don't eat everything I want to.
  4. Many people have run their first marathon and many people have helped many people run their first marathon. They don't know everything, but they know a lot more than I do.
  5. Running too hard is discouraging, unnecessary, and very sweaty.
  6. Getting up early to run seems hard but life happens more during the day and it takes a lot more dedication to stick to your plan with life happening around you.
  7. Don't listen to people who say you can't do something just because they haven't.
  8. Don't listen to people who say you can't do something just because they haven't tried.
  9. Don't listen to people who say you can't do something just because they have tried and failed.
  10. Do listen to people who have done what you want to do.
  11. Do listen to people who say you can do something and believe in you. These people are your friends.
  12. It's not over until you say it is.

Project Updates

     Projectwise, the weekend was pretty good to me. Jeri Dawn got up early and left to help a friend with a garage sale. By 9:00am, the girls were too awake for me to stay in bed. After breakfast, I decided that I would try to finish cleaning and organizing the garage. The girls were good and I got a lot done by 11:00am. Just as we were leaving to go get free raspberry and strawberry plants, Jeri Dawn got home. So we all went to Wellsville to help an older couple thin out their raspberries and strawberries. They had placed an ad in the paper that Jeri Dawn told me about - I was one of the first to call, and after 20 people they had to start telling people that they were all out. We ended up with well over 30 raspberry plants and at least 25 strawberry plants!
     We had a little lunch and I went back to the garage. Jeri Dawn planted most of the strawberry plants, then I did the raspberry plants and the rest of strawberry plants. The garage is almost done! I can access almost everything easily, I have room to work on projects, and I still have shelf space available!
     After all the work, it was 6:30pm, so I lit the briquettes and made some burgers! Steven came for the BBQ and brought a delicious watermelon. We discussed the upcoming solar projects and set some deadlines to get things done. I've decided that I'm not going to listen to Christmas music until my Solar Air Heaters are installed - quite a sacrifice but hopefully a good motivator. I also found at least 2 alternatives to purchasing the polycarbonate sheets online - both of which are cheaper and cheaper delivery! I previously planned to spend around $350 to get 3 sheets, then $215, and now there's a possibility that it will cost just over $100! This news came while working on a scout fundraiser at Anderson Seed and Garden "fluffing" Christmas trees. Their green house is made out of the material I want to use and Mark Anderson (the owner) thinks he can get it for $18 less per sheet and minimal shipping costs. I'll find out more soon.
     Unfortunately, in all the fun on Saturday, I missed my long training run for the marathon. So this morning I put in 14.1 miles before work. My average mile time was around 7:28 - a little slower than I had hoped. I did run a route that included the last 7.2 miles of the TOU Marathon - that took 53:48. I guess if I'm going to qualify for the Boston marathon, I'll need to be at the 19 mile mark before 2:17:12 to complete it by 3:10:59.
     My swim training didn't go as planned on Thursday. Apparently the outdoor pool is closed so some swim team was using 3 lanes and an aquatic aerobic class also started the same day. I spent the first 40 minutes at going back and forth less than 1/2 the length of the pool. I did get my goggles adjusted pretty well - it's more enjoyable to swim without water in my eyes! After the swim team was done, I did 13 laps (2x25 yards) in about 40 minutes. I didn't use a kick-board at all, but did stick with the pull boy. In 2/3 of the time, I did 3/4 of the laps compared to the previous week. I suppose that is an improvement!

Running Shoes

     When Travis (bigger, younger brother) left on his mission, I decided one last time that I was going to gain weight. This was nothing new, in fact it was something that I tried every few years starting back in the 11th grade. But this time I had greater resolve, did more research and had a two year goal: weigh more than Travis when he comes home from his mission.
     Everyone knows that weight gain is just like banking; you have to put more in than you take out if you want your account to grow. However, if you want that weight to be muscle, it takes a lot more time and dedication than if you don't care what the weight is. I borrowed "Body for Life" from my mom, took a few days reading it, modified it for my goals and went to work! "Body for Life" is actually very informational. In all my reading, studying, and working out, I've found that it probably has the best philosophy, exercise routine, and nutritional information all in one place for the average person. I guess that there are a few basics things worth pointing out:
   1. Weight train 3 times a week, alternating upper and lower body.
   2. Run three times a week, focusing on cardio vascular - 20 min.
   3. Eat 6 meals a day: 1 protein, 1 carbohydrate each meal.
     Generally speaking, Body for Life is for losing weight and maintaining the change. With a slight modification, you can use it for weight gain. The modification is to eat 2 carbohydrates and 1 protein for the first 3 meals of the day. That sounded good to me - extra food! It turns out that eating that much food was a lot of work. I started eating EAS Myoplex with a banana and 16 oz. of milk for breakfast (after working out.) For a mid-morning snack, I ate 1/2 cup of cottage cheese (considered a protein by Bill Phillips - the author) mixed with 1 cup of Yoplait yogurt every day (something I continued doing over 3 years, 'til I started training for a marathon...though I reduced the yogurt to 1/2 cup.) I also used EAS Creatine that was supposed to aid muscle growth as well.
     At the same time, BJ (smaller, younger brother) was running with a friend at Kimberly Clark. They were going to compete in the TOU 5k and he wanted to know if I wanted to join them, since Logan is my territory. However, I had developed an interesting running problem - the outsides of my calves turned rock hard earlier and earlier in my runs. The last mile or so of the 5k I ran 2 blocks, walked 1, and repeated. My brother suggested that it may be my shoes and suggested that I go to Striders to be fitted for running shoes specifically made for my foot type.
     One weekend later (and a couple hundred dollars) Jeri Dawn and I had new shoes. Mine were Asics GT-2090s - "built for the moderate over-pronator who requires a combination of cushioning and enhanced stability." They worked great. However, they didn't fix my calf problem...only time and trial and error could help me resolve that, not money - unless I had an operation. It turns out that the creatine helps muscles recover from workouts by absorbing fluids. It also turns out that there are two muscles contained in a sheath on the outer calf. The sheath doesn't really grow, but that doesn't stop the muscles form retaining fluid when the blood starts pumping, resulting in immense pressure in the sheath and rock hard outer calves. I have quit using creatine and never had a problem since.
     I did end up gaining 15 lbs. - I got to 161 lbs. I wish I could say that all the gains were muscle, but it's really not easy to gain a lot of muscle without putting on fat. That's why body builders got through a cutting phase every so often. I guess that I kind of gave up on the weight gain after a winter camp with the scouts. It took me nearly 1/2 hour to get all my snow gear on because it was made for someone smaller than I was at that time. Two years after his mission, and 4 months into marathon training, Travis now weighs around 160 lbs. I drifted back to 145-147 lbs, until I started my marathon training. Now I weigh around 135 lbs.
     The title of this post is running shoes, though this post doesn't really seem to be about shoes. I decided to write about this earlier when I put my shoes on to do my morning run. On those original GT-2090s, I put over 630 miles between September, 2007 and the Ogden Marathon.
I've heard and read many places that you should replace your shoes every 300-500 miles, but I thought my shoes still felt great. Just in case, the week after the marathon, I got on Zappos to order a two-year newer model - the GT-2110, which is discontinued since it's last years model, so I got them for a much better price than this years model. They're 3 oz. lighter and felt great right out of the box. I've put over 340 miles on them and still feel great.
     I did wear my GT-2090s to run in the rain the other day and didn't really notice a difference between the two pairs. Asics are consistant, making it easy to buy shoes cheap - just go to Zappos and find a newer shoe in an older model!

Solar Air Heater Proto

     Shortly after moving into our home on Canyon Road, winter rolled in. When our gas bill arrived in the middle of December (2005), Jeri Dawn wasn't impressed - it was around $150. She said, "We have to do something about this." It seemed to me we had terrible drafts from the ancient windows. So I went to Home Depot and purchased 5 or 6 sheets of 2" foam insulation boards (4'x8') that I cut to fit tightly into the window openings. This reduced the drafts and heat loss, so we also reduced the temperature settings. My wife thinks the sub-arctic temperatures at night were a little too low. The following month our bill went down around $20 while my friend Jake Sanchez's bill went up another 35%. I figure that we saved the $120 spent on foam in the first winter.
     By the time summer rolled around, Jeri Dawn asked me to leave the foam in quite a few of the windows to keep the heat out of the house and the light out of the kids' rooms for nap time. Other pieces have been removed and added each year, many of which may need to be replaced soon.
     The next winter, in an attempt to reduce costs even more, we bought electric blankets, allowing us to lower the temperature even more at night. The morning temperature setting usually kicked in when all my girls woke up. I usually got up about an hour before that - man, was it frigid. Most of the winter, we wore slippers and sweatshirts - it was kind of cozy.
     Last year I happened upon a website that showed a solar air pop can heater and started collecting cans. After more research I decided that the pop can idea seemed like too much work. I took a few discarded stencils (5-6 mil stainless steel sheets about 25"x25") from work, painted them black and stuck them in the south facing windows. During the day I removed the foam from the windows and attempted to heat the house with the sunlight. It would have worked better if the foam fight tightly back in the windows after each day, but wear and tear prevented it. I think we may have come out a little ahead, but not much.
     I hoped to have built doors (to match the room decor) for the south facing windows this year, but that hasn't happened yet. What? With all the other projects, who really thought that would happen? But I did build a prototype of the solar air heaters that I want to build before November. The picture only shows it partially complete, since in the excitement of completing a project, I set out to prove that it would work instead of documenting the completion. At this point there is a 2x4 frame with a 2'x4' sheet of osb on back. Inside is a 2'x4' sheet of 2" foam (leftover from the windows) covered by double foil, double bubble insulation. I cut two holes for air intake and exhaust, placed a fan at the intake, cut and placed 0.75"x0.75" wood strips to channel the air snake-like through the air-gap, covered it with a 5-6 mil sheet of stainless steel spray painted black and then mounted a piece of acrylic (polycarbonate) over the top of it all.
     To test it, I set thermocouples at the intake and exhaust and set it in the sun (at about 60° from horizontal and directly at the sun - similar to how it will be mounted in the winter but rotated 90°; this made for a pretty high angle of incidence which is a good worst case scenario for the winter.) The results are posted below. The temperature drops as the sun moves and the heater is no longer perpendicular to the sun. The temperature gain is over 100°F.


















     The plan is to make 3 solar air heaters, 4'x8' each with fans that move 10 times as much air as the proto; 4 times more air because they are 4 times larger than the proto, then more than double that because the lower temperatures in the heaters means that more of the heat has already been transfered into the house! Instead of using stencils (5-6 mil stainless steel), I am thinking about using aluminum foil. Aluminum is great for heat transfer and foil is about as cheap as I can get it. I don't know if this is the best idea, but haven't yet found a reason to use anything else. Instead of an acrylic glazing, I want to get Lexan ThermoClear Multiwall sheets for added insulation. They're expensive and shipping is worse. I'm trying to find a source in the Salt Lake area. As soon as I can find those, and a few fans, I'll get started on the final project. I still haven't figured out exactly where I'll mount these or what to do about ducting...

Triathlon?

     While hiking out of the Uintas after a 50 mile hike, I talked with Dean Bloxham most of the way. He rode LotoJa last year solo and is riding in a team this year (to be side by side with his son Caden who is on another team.) He'll be turning 50 in 2010 and want to do a triathlon that year. He asked if I wanted to do it with him. Naturally, I said, "Sure!"
     I know how to ride a bike. I've run a marathon. I don't really know how to swim - that's a problem. Since this blog is dedicated to the many projects that I want to complete, I thought I would add swimming as a project that I am working on. Sure, I can doggy-paddle, I can almost swim a backstroke, and I sink really well. But moving forward on my stomach has never really gone well for me. In fact, when I was a scout, I had to cheat to pass the swim test so I could take the rowing merit badge at Camp Bartlett.
     I started Thursday - August 28th. I did a little research on the internet, watched a few videos on youtube and went to the pool. I spent about an hour in the water swimming the length of the pool 34 times (25 yards long) trying various strokes/techniques. Sometimes I would use only my right arm, or left arm, or legs only. I played "Catch-up" with my arms, I used a pull boy which allowed me work on my arm movements and kick-board that kept me afloat, and I worked on taking breaths at different intervals, on both sides. It was a lot of work. At the end, I went the length of the pool twice without any floatation devices.
     I've decided that there are a few things that will make it easier and more pleasant: goggles, a snorkel, flippers, and ear-plugs. I'm sure they don't let you compete with a snorkel or flippers, so I just bought goggles and ear plugs (I included the shopping bag in the image to spite Al's Sporting Goods - I like the store, but if I go there for a specific item (Under Armour shorts, Under Armour underwear (only size XXL), Mountain House freeze dried meals, goggles) they never have it.
     We'll see how it goes on Thursday.