Trip to the doctor

Well I had an appointment to see the doctor to follow up with a problem I have been having with my shoulder. Not sure what happened but it has been really sore and making some grinding noises. It seems to be getting better. I have been taking ibuprofin and some othe stuff. I had a couple other things that have been bothering me. For one my blood pressure all of a sudden has been high. A lot higher than what it should be. I have been checking it at home and it has been high too. Also I have been having some upper right quadrant pain when I am sleeping and it wakes me up. Well my blood pressure was really high 170/100 and we shall see if it stays high. He seemed more concerned with the pain. Well wouldn't you know it.....last night was the first night I have not had the pain and I slept all night. Also no pain at all today. Go figure. He gave me some nexium because it might be stomach related. He scheduled me for some labs and an ultrasound on my gallbladder. I am not sure it will be necessary now because the pain went away. Could have been related to the ibuprofen and other anti inflammatory pills so we will see what happens over the next few days. On a good note, I had my blood drawn this morning and the results we super great.
Total Cholesterol: 79 (was 109 in 04, 89 in 05, optimal <200)
Triglycerides 45 (was 234 in 04, 120 in 05, optimal <150)
HDL- good cholesterol- 58 (was 42 in 04, 44 in 05, range should be 40-60)
LDL- bad cholesterol- 12 (was 20 in 04, 21 in 05, optimal <100)
Cholesterol/HDL (cardiac risk ratio) 1.4 (was 2.6 in 04, 2.0 in 05, normal range is 3.5-5)
Also all the other tests for liver function and some other stuff were all in the normal range. Now that the pain is gone, we shall see about the blood pressure thing. I hope that gets better too.
No running last night or tonight. I was pretty sore yesterday plus I had the doctor appointment. Today I decided to take another days rest. It should be nice enough tomorrow to run outside. Weather was crap today. Cold and windy and raining most of the day off and on. Plus I had to work hard today. We seem to be getting busier.
Supposed to go and get my HOT TUB on Saturday. I am excited. I think it is going to be awesome when it is done and working and hooked up and I have the gazebo thing built around it. Melting the sore muscles away and making me want to exercise even more.

Big run to go with long ride

Today was another really nice day. I think it almost got up to 80. Still pretty windy though. We got to sleep with the windows open last night which was great. Woke up and went to work and kept looking outside wanting to be outside. At 4 I got done with work and J-Wim and I went out on the bike trail and ran from Lions beach house in Janesville all the way out to the home depot. You can see the run here. It wound up being 9.42 miles in 1:48 or 11:32 min/mile pace. After the first couple miles, J-Wim felt ill a little and started walking. I took off and ran 11 min miles for the next 4 miles and then I wound up running into her on the way back and she turned around and was better. I was not sure how long I could keep running 11 min miles so I ran her pace for a couple miles and then kicked it down for the last 2. I felt pretty good and I was happy to do that long of a run. My legs and knees are sore a little bit. I did ice down my knee for about a half hour and that made it feel pretty good. I actually think I could have run the whole thing at 11 min mile pace but I am glad I did not because I do not think I would have been able to walk after that. I did try a new product called Cyclomax go grape flavored drink. It is like Gatorade but better. I like it and it gives me a little energy boost. I also ate some Cliff brand shot blocks. They are like gummy worms but in the shape of a little block and not as gummy. I ate some of them during my run and it helped give me some energy at the end.
I was hoping to do some biking tomorrow but the weather is calling for rain. Plus I am not sure my legs will let me do much tomorrow.
J-Wim did really good again. I am really glad she let's me run with her.

My matmu (that is secret code for mom) wanted to see my new Michael's Cycles shirt so here it is

Road biking

Today I got up around 9. I finally slept all night. It was super warm out. I quickly ate breakfast and J-Wim and I went out on the road bikes. We rode over to her SIL and BIL's house and picked them up to ride. I got to ride by BIL's 2005 Trek Madone 5.2 all carbon fiber road bike. It was really nice. I could not believe that I could feel the difference between an aluminum and a carbon fiber bike, but I could. My SIL was out for her first road ride. Yeah. She did awesome. There were a few hills and we took it slow. We headed out of town and rode 16 miles and then we went back to her house to drop her off. She did great. Then J-Wim, Jeff (my BIL) and I took off and rode fast out of town and we rode up a couple of big hills. We then went back to our house. We wound up with 35 miles. You can see the ride here. We took showers and then went out to the bike shop so I could get some accelerade. (Like Gatorade but better). Bob from the bike shop gave me and J-Wim free shirts. How cool is that. That is why I love that place. www.michaelscycles.net if you ever need anything biking.
We then went out and got my son a couple pair of shorts and I wanted to look at an aerator that pulls behind my riding mower so I can try to get my lawn in shape. They are expensive.
While we were out, my best friend called me and told me of a hot tub for sale that he had called about that he saw in the paper. I have been looking for one cheap. I called the guy and went and looked at it. It looks like a 2000 Tiger river Siberian tub. He said it needs a new heater element and might leak around the heater. 200 bucks. I about crapped my pants and gave him the 200 bucks on the spot. It has a cover lifter and the tub itself is in excellent condition. Even if I spend 500 bucks getting it working, I will still have a 3000 dollar tub for under a grand. So next weekend I am going to get it and see if I can figure out what all I need. I know I need to have an electrician come and wire me a 220 into the garage and I will bury the wire from the tub into the garage. Either way, I know I will have to spend a few bucks to get it working and set up, but it will be AWESOME. Thank you J-Wim. You knew I wanted one bad and as always you are being very awesome about buying one.
Hopefully in a few weeks (or when I get enough money) I will be soaking my sore bike and run muscles in a hot tub.
J-Wim and I also picked up all the yard bombs from the dogs. I bet there is 4o pounds of it. It always feels nice to get that job done in the spring.
Going to try to do a 10 mile run after work tomorrow. I will let you know. Big storms coming tonight. Tornado watches all around our county.

All about the shoes

Went to relay for life last night and walked for an hour with J-Wim. Then we came back home. We were going to stay the whole time but decided it was really crowded and we had already donated. I had to work this morning and we wanted to go up to Madison to the bike shops after that. Went to bed early last night. Worked until 11 this morning and then we headed up to Madison. We went to a bike shop called Machinery Row. They have a ton of stuff there. We had been looking for some mountain bike shoes. When we originally bought them with our road bikes, they were the cheapest that they had. Big mistake. Now we have road bike shoes for our road bikes and the old road bike shoes (really mountain bike shoes) we uncomfortable. They were Nikes and man do they run narrow. Both me and J-Wim had problems with our feet falling asleep. So we went to Madison. Machinery row did not have what we wanted so we went to Eriks. Found some specialized ones on sale. They rock. Came back home and did a quick 15 miles on the mountain bikes (even went on a mountain bike trail for the first time...awesome.... can not wait for summer now). Gonna take a ride or run tomorrow and going to try a 10 mile run on Monday. Weather in the 60's but supposed to be rainy.

Just a quick run today

Went to the Y after work and did a quick 5K. Somehow either my nike + or J-Wims is seriously off calibration. I lapped her 5 times and right after I finished, she stopped about 30 yards in front of me and hers had her completed 5K as well. It felt good to run a little. My legs were sore from the 7 miler. Rain and thunderstorms here for today and tonight. Hoping to maybe get a bike ride in this week yet and maybe even this weekend.

Longest run yet

Yesterday after I did my blog, I went out and ran some errands with the wife. I needed a couple more buffing pads so I could wax the Envoy. We stopped at the bike shop and got some new under liners. They turn any shorts into bike shorts. They are like boxers with a chamois pad in them for biking. I went over to Super Wal Mart and got some pads for the buffer. It was really nice out. The sun was shining and it seemed pretty warm. We got back home and I moved cars around so I had plenty of room in the garage and set out to clean the Envoy and wax it. I put the Badger game on. I was hoping they would win but I knew better. Got the car clean and waxed. It looked awesome. It really needed it. J-Wim wanted to go for a bike ride so I said sure. We rode the mountain bikes onto the bike trail and would up with 19 miles. It was cold and windy and by the time we got home I was frozen. It was way colder than it looked out.
Today after work we decided to go and take a big run. We drove down to Palmer Park and got on the bike trail and ran. Wound up with 7 miles in an hour 18 mins. You can see the run here
It felt good. I had always wondered what running that far was like. I am pretty sure now I can 10 miles. I am hoping in the next couple weeks to do 10. Ran the last mile tonight in 9:30. That felt good too.
Got some bad news today too. One of J-Wims high school classmates (who had a 1 year old son and a 4 year old son) died of cancer. We both really did not know him that well. I had worked with him a little bit at one job I had. He had been posting on their class reunion website and last Saturday they had a fundraiser to help him pay the bills and start a college fund for his kids. I was thinking of contacting some of his friends and co-workers to see if maybe they wanted to do a memorial run 5 or 10K to raise some money for his kids to go to college. Us runners are always willing to pony up 25 bucks to run and get a shirt. Here is a link to the posting on her class reunion website. If anyone wants to help out, they can. Always sad when kids are involved. Especially that young. Makes me realize how quickly life can be snatched away.
GOOD JOB ON YOUR RUN PAT. Now that Wisconsin is out I hope Ohio State wins it all.

The day after

Had some cramping in my calves from running yesterday. I am not sure where that came from. Watched a move last night called "Journey to the end of the Night". Had Scott Glenn and Brandon Fraser and Mos Def in it. It was weird. The story was easy to follow and it had a a lot of bloody violence so I guess I could give it a 5 out of 10. Do not go out of your way to see it though.
I sold the other comfort bike yesterday so that was cool. Now I am getting another bike rack so I can hang all 4 bikes up in the garage. None of them have kickstands so I need to do something.
Woke up early again today (I have been sleeping like crap) and did an hour on the elliptical trainer. My brooks Beast shoes do not fit in the foot well very good so I have to keep my feet to the outside. I was getting some discomfort by doing that so I tried to do it on my tip toes. Holy Crap did that make my calves burn. I did it few more times because it actually felt good. Then I got off that and did a mile on the treadmill and realized my legs are shot.
Supposed to be in the 40's today and sunny so I should get some outside work done. Lots of dog bombs in the yard. Anyone care to help?

Shamrock Shuffle Results

Well we met my sister-in-law and brother-in-law at our house at 8 and we went up to Madison. They decided they would run together since she is new to running and would need some encouragement. Here is a picture of us getting ready.
It was cold. Probably 20 degrees or so. We got to the start line with about 5 minutes to go and waited for the 10K runners to start. I jumped up on a wall and snapped a couple shots





This picture has J-Wim (in yellow) and my SIL and BIL. The race was packed at the start and it took me 3 minutes to get out on the street where I could actually run. The race was fun and I finished in 30:45 which is my slowest ever. I had a good mile 2 and mile 3 but the first was poor and even though I felt like I was going fast, I must not have been. Still finished 505 out of 900. You can see my garmin data here results of the race are here you may have to download the complete data in pdf to see me. I am 505. You can read J-Wim's blog to see how she did.
I finished before the others and snapped a picture of them as well.


J-Wim is in the yellow. One last shot of my BIL and SIL.

My SIL is in orange and you can see my BIL behind her and J-Wim who went back to run with her in the yellow. Click on the pictures to make them bigger and you can see them.
We had a great time and it is always not about the results that matter I guess. I am a little disappointed but I think the start messed me up and I just could not go any faster with the big crowd of people on the little path..

Pre-race report

Well I am up early. J-Wim went to some wierd thing with her sister last night in Madison called "Menopause the Musical"-(super glad I was not invited) and picked up our race packets for us. Cool. It is cold this morning-about 15 degress right now. Race is not for another 3 hours so I hope it warms up. Got my shirt and bib.


If you see me wearing this shirt later today at Super Wal-Mart...go ahead and say hi. Should be fun.

Shamrock Shuffle tomorrow

Well tomorrow at 10am is the first outdoor event of the year for me. Only doing the 5K. Hoping to start doing 10K runs by May. My only problem is that I do not have much for green cold weather running gear to help celebrate St. Patricks Day. It is only supposed to be 30 degrees tomorrow so it will probably be about 20 or so when we run. I think I have a green Nike hat I can wear. Hope I can at least stay under 29 mins. I do not know how hilly the course is.
Last night after work J-Wim and I took a ride to the bike shop on our mountain bikes. It was 30 degrees and cold. For gloves all I had was running gloves and they were not breaking the wind, so at the bike shop I got some warmer gloves. I also saw a nice Trek biking jacket at 50% off so I got that too. Warmed up some at the shop and then we rode home. Got about 13 miles. It was fun. No exercise today. I am saving myself for tomorrow. A big shout out to Pat who is doing another half marathon Sunday. Sometime this summer I may do one. There is one in late Summer right here in Janesville. I am hoping I am up to it.
Well so far the only information I have on the duathlon in Janesville is what I saw on movinshoesmadison.com and I am hoping that their information is correct. I am really excited about doing the one here.
Well I will let you know how the shuffle goes. I am going to take the camera and get some pictures of the crowd before the race and maybe I can get some during the race, but I doubt it. I will get some after I am done too.
GreenMike...out

SSSWWWEEETTTTT!!!

Got some great news. May 19, 2007 The Janesville YMCA is doing a duathlon (2mile run/15mile bike/2mile run) at Parker High School. That is 100 yards from my house!!!!! That means I will get to run/bike right where I ALWAYS do my run/bikes. I am very excited to do that one now. It will be pretty neat to already know the course. I think I will be able to do well in it. No exercise last night as the 30 mile bike ride made both knees and quads sore. (FYI-my wife totally can bike now. She freakin hauls that little butt of hers pretty darn well down the road-Gave me a good workout trying to keep up:)) Tonight I am going to do a big run and then nothing tomorrow. Saturday Shamrock Shuffle and then I start really cracking the whip getting ready for the Paper Discovery Duathlon in Appleton, Wi. Can hardly wait. The snow all melted here. We went from having a huge snowstorm to not having any snow at all in 2 weeks. How bizarre is that?
Anyhow. I did not win the powerball so I guess I better get back to work.

Ride on the road bike

Today was really nice out. Someone said they called the temperature and it said 73. I am not sure it got that warm but it was nice. We had the company that plumbed our house come today and give us an estimate on taking the 5 foot shower out of our master bathroom and replace it with a whirlpool tub. Not sure of the cost but we are thinking about it. I wanted to put one in when we built the house but the house budget would not allow it at that time. Big mistake not doing it. I used to have a hot tub in the old house and I miss it. Especially now that I am working out and exercising. My muscles ache and my shoulder is killing me. I remember using the hot tub when I had my knee surgery and it made it feel so good. The hot tub really helped to make my knee stretch out. So if I do not have to get another mortgage I would like a whirlpool tub. If that does not pan out, I am going to see about putting a hot tub on the back patio. It would be nice. But it is not important right now and I am not going to lose sleep if we don't get one right now. It will give me some time to save up.
Got home at 4:30 and had to set up my sons new phone. I got him one through insurance since his broke. Same phone he had. Once I can renew my contract in August, I am getting 2 new red razr phones for me and J-Wim and I am giving my kids my old razr phones. I got his phone set up and then got our bikes ready to ride with the local Velo club. We went with another lady who rides with them all the time. We were riding with the A riders so we knew that they were going to ride fast. We kept up as long as we could and then 4 of us fell back and rode hard but not at their pace. We wound up with 29 miles. You can see the ride here I can feel it in my legs. There were times we were sustaining over 20MPH. The average time is not as accurate because there were times we had to stop for traffic and stop lights in town as we were getting to the country roads. It was fun. We were gone for almost 3 hours total and that did not leave much time after we got home to do anything but eat, shower and update the blog. Now it is almost time for bed. I would like to run tomorrow but I am not sure I will be able to. I need to be ready for Saturday's run. Run Athena where are you?

Run outside again

Got up and went to work today and it was nice out again today. I left at lunch time and went and found out that my son's cell phone was no longer in warranty so I had to file an insurance claim to get a new one. I only have a 25 dollar deductible so basically tomorrow he gets the same phone only new and I only had to pay 25 bucks instead of the hundred or so for a new screen. It was really nice out and I was longing to bike but I had to work. Then my shoulder has been bothering me so I went to the doctor and he said it was nothing to worry about. It just creaks and cracks and it sometimes hurts sharply when I move my arm over my head. He said give it a couple weeks and if it is not better he will put an anti inflamatory agent in my shoulder via needle. We shall see.
It got really busy at work right when I wanted to leave so I had to stay until 4:30. I got home and changed my clothes and J-Wim and I went on a nice run. Not quite 6 miles in a hour and ten minutes. Nice slow pace. It felt good. I think we could have run 10 but I do not have a good 10 mile course. I need to come up with one. You can see my route here.
We are doing a ride with the velo club tomorrow on the road bikes. Then a run/spin class on Wed, small easy run on Thurs. Friday off and then Saturday is the Shamrock Shuffle 5K. First shirt of the year. I love shirts.
Here is a picture of my grandparents. They moved down to North Carolina to live by my mom a year ago. They were here right before winter and stayed with us. This picture was from March 2003 with my son Lucas who was 10 at the time. I was thinking about them today. The dog is their son's (my uncle Mike). Her name is Fluffly. Well I can't wait for tomorrow so I can ride my road bike outside.

My New Bike Totally Rocks

Well I awoke with excitement this morning knowing that it was going to be nice out and I would get to ride my new mountain bike. I got all dressed up (it was a little chilly) and got ready with J-Wim to ride. We started out and the first thing I noticed was how easy it was to pedal. I ran through all the gears to make sure everything was working. It shifts awesome. I was really happy with how the bike rode. We rode over to J-Wims sisters to check out her hubby's new bike. He went to the bike expo last night and we watched the baby and their other kid. He got a 2005 Trek Madone 5.2 (all carbon top of the line Trek). It had been used as a rental overseas and had about 1100 miles on it. It is still in excellent condition and it is a great bike. He is looking forward to riding it. We checked out their basement as he is drywalling and running new electrical and putting new flooring in. It is turning out nice and will provide them with some well needed space. We then rode around for another half hour. My feet started to get cold. J-Wim has the Nike booties that go over your shoes and she has always said they are great. I need some. I had to get home because my brother is moving and I told him I would help him out. We got back home and I moved some stuff around in the garage. I put my chest freezer up in the garage from the basement to make it more usable and to relive some overflow from the kitchen freezer. My brother came over and picked up a bed that he was storing here and I went over and checked out his new house. J-Wim went over to her sisters again and did a 5K with her around the neighborhood. She is trying to get in shape since having the baby and plus it will be fun for us to go and do runs and races together. I know her sister hates the running but it is hard at first but once she keeps with it in a few months it will be a lot easier for her and I bet she likes it more. Since we wound up not moving stuff, I called and asked J-Wim to buy me some biking booties and she said.......YES!!!! So I met her at home and off to Michael's Cycles we went. Got the booties and a universal bike tool for J-Wim's bike bag. Then we came back home and went on another hour bike ride. Those booties make a big difference. My feet never even got near cold. My hands were a little cold with my running gloves on but not bad. I am really happy with my mountain bike. I totally loved riding it around town and it for sure will be a bike that I will ride around and run errands on. I still love my road bike and that will be for racing and riding out on the country roads. (Not that I won't take my mountain bike, but you can go a lot faster on the road bike. At least I can.) It was really nice out today. It is supposed to be nice tomorrow too and with the extra hour of daylight, I am going to take a nice run tomorrow and my brother in law wants to do a ride with his new bike on Tuesday. Race on Saturday. The shamrock shuffle 5K in Madison. Last year there were over 500 entrants. I hope to finish in the top half.
As I sit here writing this watching my wife fold laundry. I realize how lucky I am to have her. She is awesome.

Today was awesome!!

What a great day today. Started out about 7 when I woke up and realized the sun was shining brightly into my bedroom. We have not had a nice sunny day in a long time. I got up and showered and got dressed and J-Wim and I headed up to Madison to the bike o rama. I took my aluminum cans in and used the money to wash the car (almost took the bike rack off at the automatic but realized I would not fit so I did the manual wash). We got up there and walked around and looked at stuff. Their bike prices were AWESOME! I saw the bikes I have recently purchased for about a hundred bucks less EACH. But that is only because it is a big sale and I like to buy local when I can. I was wearing my Michael's Cycles shirt so everyone would know where my alliance is. I was looking for a camouflage pair of bike shorts. Did not find any. I was not impressed with their clothing prices. We did find some good stuff. I got a CO2 inflator, bike tool, small hand pump, rear view mirrors that mount on your helmet and some great information on a couple big bike rides for the summer. We then went to Dicks sporting goods. I was in search of a small back pack. About the size of a camelback hydration pack only without the hydration stuff. Found a small back pack at Dicks. I want one so when we go mountain biking I can take an extra shirt, socks, some gels and powerbars. We walked around the mall and I got my kids a couple shirts. They were all funny. The ones I got said "You must like animals because I am a beast" and the other one said "Procrastinators unite...tomorrow."
My kids liked them. We went to the Trek store and then off to Fleet Feet sports. We got 4 pairs of balega socks (the greatest running socks ever). If you ever buy a pair you will never run in any other socks again. I had a pair and lost one of the socks and thought I was going to cry. J-Wim bought a running skirt. Its sexy so I let her get it:). We then drove home and because it was almost 50 here we went running. I ran ahead of her because I wanted to give myself a little fitness test. I ran in the road because a lot of snow was melting and there were big puddles. I got to the last 1/2 mile and run on the bike path behind the school. Not really shoveled and I was ankle deep in slush/water. I am hoping the I pod plus is waterproof. It continued to work even after being submersed so we shall see. I had to walk through it. That made me mad. I think I would have done my best 4 mile course if I would not have had to walk. I also found out that my i pod plus is about 1/8 of a mile off for every mile I run. To the good. So my I pod plus said 4 miles and the Garmin (YEAH I got to use my Garmin again.) said 4.22 miles. See my run and results here
I was very happy with the results. 4.22 miles in 44:28 and I am certain I could have shaved about a minute off my time if not for the super slush. That would have put my pace at about 10:30 for the 4.22 miles. Best part is I did not feel as winded as I used to on the 2 big uphill climbs during the run. All in all a great day. Now to go shower and put on my new socks.
Tomorrow should be great because it is supposed to be close to 50 and sunny and we are taking the new mountain bikes out for a big ride. I will try to remember the camera and snap some footage.

Nike I pod plus pouch

I got my I pod pouch for my shoes today. I can now use my good Brooks Beast shoes and use the I pod plus. I went to the YMCA and got there a little earlier than J-Wim and ran 4 miles and then walked for one. I felt really good and I know I could have probably done at least 6 miles running. Decided to run tonight and not do the spin class. J-Wim was having issues with her I pod so she was not able to use it or her I pod plus. It was locked up and on the top it said it was in disk mode. Not sure what the deal was but once she hooked it up to her PC she was able to reset it and now it seems to be o.k. It has not been the same since the dog chewed it up. J-Wim was able to sell both our old comfort bikes to people she works with. I am glad. We are going to a big bike expo in Madison this weekend and now I have a little pocket cash to maybe buy some camo mountain bike shorts. I have logged 16 miles so far this week running which is really good for me. Next weekend is the Shamrock Shuffle 5K. I am really curious how I will do. I would really like to go out as fast as I can and see how far I get before I have to slow it down. Should be able to use my Garmin and my I pod plus and I will see just how accurate it is. I will wait until summer and calibrate the i pod plus. Weather here is supposed to get nice. Mid 50's on Tuesday. Should be able to take a nice run outside as long as it is not too wet.
Thanks to all of you who sent me money to help fix my snowmobile. Keep it coming. I really appreciate it.
I thought I would leave you with a picture of my me and my mom.

Obviously this was prior to the weight loss. I think this shirt was a 6XL.

Movie Review: The Prestige

Wow..Great movie with one of the better endings I have ever seen. 8 out of 10. Pay close attention if you watch this movie as there are a lot of twists and turns and you need to pay attention, especially at the end.
I located all the parts for my snowmobile motor. Anyone care to donate?:) Not too bad. 160 for the pistons/rings and gaskets....110 for the 2 exhausts valves...40 bucks to hone out both cylinders and then everything should be all good. So about 300 bucks. Now I just need to get the parts and get it back together so it does not start to rust inside the motor. Then I can get it all oiled up and fog in the motor and put the cover on it and push it in the corner until next year. J-Wim says if I sell it I can get a 4 wheeler. HMMMMMMMM..... We shall see. Many, many, many road miles on the bikes and in the Brooks Beasts between now and then.
Ran 3.1 miles in 32 mins on the treadmill and biked 9 miles on the trainer in half an hour tonight. One of the greatest biking movies ever was on ESPN Classics... American Flyer starring Kevin Costner and Raye Dawn Chong and the movie was set in Madison, WI at the UW. If you ever get a chance to see this movie do it. It is old and sort of corny but it is good. I think it is set in 1984. The story is awesome and I like the bike race at the end. It helped me to get a good workout in. Last night I got to watch one of my new favorite movies on cable "The Bourne Supremacy" with Matt Damon. I love the 2 Jason Bourne movies and I can not wait for the third one to come out. I set a goal for myself to run 18 times in the next 4 weeks. I am really starting to ramp up for the summer. Daylight savings time for us this weekend. That means it will stay light out until almost 7 PM so running outside will not be so dangerous and it should be starting to warm up. I saw 50 by next Monday (but snow and cold tomorrow..go figure)
Well time to go sell myself for snowmobile parts.....

Lots of wrenching

Well I finally decided to start tearing my snowmobile motor apart today to figure out what the failure was. J-Wim went with her neice and sister-in-law to a local shopping mall about 45 minutes away. One we typically do not go to and has more stores that we do not have here. She does not like the snowmobile and the money it sucks out so it is better that I do this stuff when she is not here. What I found sort of makes me angry. I broke an exhaust valve and it dropped into the cylinder. While the motor was running, the valve was rubbing against the piston and it ate away some of the top ring and the piston. Then when the motor was stopped, the valve fell into the cylinder and upon re start, the piston hit the valve in the cylinder and it bent. So I took the head off, took the exhaust off, took the cylinder off and found that the only damage was to the exhaust valve and piston/ring. I am angry because there was a recall on these sleds when they were new to have the aluminum exhaust valves replaced with stainless steel. When I bought the sled the guy I bought it from told me that it had been updated to the stainless steel. Well this valve that is broken does not feel like stainless steel to me but aluminum. So he lied. Now I will call the dealer tomorrow and see if I can still get the stainless valves under recall. (Which would be great.. otherwise I have no idea what the cost of them are, but I need to replace both). I also need a set of pistons/rings/gasket set. I saw one on ebay for 160 bucks. So next time I get paid 5 times in a month I will buy all the parts and get it back together for next year. My buds are going up north next weekend because they got over 2 feet of snow Friday/Saturday about 4 hours north of here. I would like to go but I do not see that happening. At least I know it is not more serious. Should be an easy fix. I am glad the cylinder was not damaged because they are 200 bucks.
I plan on doing another run tonight and see if I can make my i pod plus work right. Even if I have to manually get my stats, I still like it. I hope J-Wim is buying me some stuff from the mall.

Nike I pod +/Movie review

Well I was out at the local Finish Line store looking at some regular shoes (I had a pair of Nike Shox that my son used for basketball and then quit wearing them 2 years ago and they finally blew a hole which = wet sock.. no good) and I saw the I pod plus and decided I needed to try it. I did not find any good shoes at Finish Line but I did buy a sweet pair of regular Nikes at Kohl's deparment store on sale for 34 bucks. Leather ones even. Score. J-Wim found 2 pairs of pants, a pair of undies, and a shirt for 20 bucks for everything on sale at Sears. I would say we scored big time. I decided that I could not wait for my shoe pouch to come so I got out the dremel and routed out a hole in my Asics 2110 shoes. I already have a Garmin but it does not work on the treadmill or in the YMCA. I will use my Garmin with my Brooks Beast shoes outside and use my Asics for indoors and treadmill running with the I pod plus. It worked out good. I went to the Y and ran 3 miles in 31 min. The only problem I had is that I did not get the voice feedback during the run. Now I just did a basic workout and I could get the data manually by pressing the center button. J-Wim got one as well and hers gave her mileage and time during the run but mine did not. She said she used the basic work out as well. Maybe mine is defective. I read the owners manual and went on line and found other people having the same issue. Some of them told me that I needed to not use the basic set up and either set time or distance but I do not see why that would be necessary. I then came home and did another 5K on the treadmill and this time I entered the distance and did not use the basic set up. All I got was the voice every K telling me I completed 1K, 2K and so on. I did not get times and pace unless I pressed the center button. I guess this is not a big deal as I can get the data manually but it would be nice to hear overall time during the run. Anyone have this issue and know what I am doing wrong? Or maybe it is defective and I need to give Nike a call. I read on a chat room on their website that there are others with the same problem. Sounds like a lot of them. Anyway I wound up running 6.2 miles today in around an hour and five minutes. I tested out the accuracy of the I pod plus on the treadmill and it was fairly close. I think over the 5K it was only off by .1 miles.
Watched the movie Stranger Than Fiction last night. It was o.k.. 6 out of 10. Dry humor but a good story line and I liked the ending. Will Ferrell is awesome.
Went out to the bike shop and got some seat bags for the mountain bikes to put spare tubes and tire changing stuff in. Plus it is nice to have a dry place for a debit card and phone just in case. We are taking our Giant Sedona Comfort Bikes out there for a tune up as we are trying to sell them locally. They are less than a year old and have about 100 miles on them. We got really into biking and bought road bikes in August of last year. Here is what they look like

They are the 2 green bikes in the foreground. This was taken right after we got them. Going to watch The Prestige tonight. Some movie about magicians. I will let you know if it is any good or not.

Can you guess where this quote is from?

I saw that my wife posted a good quote today and it got me to think of a good quote I had heard. Anyone know where this came from?

"Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It's not about winning. It's about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didnt let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasnt one more thing you could've done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman - you're perfect!
I want you to take a moment, and I want you to look each other in the eyes. I want you to put each other in your hearts forever because forever is about to happen here in just a few minutes. I want you to close your eyes, and I want you to think about (name deleted to make it harder for you), who is your brother. And he would die to be out there in that field with you tonight. And I want you to put that in your hearts. Boys my heart is full. My heart is full."