First Cars

Do you remember your first car? Oh what fun if you're my age or a little older. Here's my first...

1969 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Sedan. It wasn't really mine. Like most kids, I got the family hand-me-down. It didn't last too long once I got a hold of it.

But my 2nd car rocked:

No, this one wasn't mine either. My dad had a fetish for Volkswagens so this was his, but he left me drive it to school my senior year. To this day, I wish I still had it and tease Rick if I had money to waste, there would be a classic VW sitting in the garage. And here is my 3rd car which was truly mine -- I made the payments for it.

A 1977 Chevy Nova. Boring. But affordable. And your first???

The First Cold Weekend

The biking has officially moved indoors for the winter unless we get some nice, sunny 40+ temp days. I'm a cold-weather wimp when it comes to biking. Rick is too. But have no fear... trainers are here! Between the two of us, we are on our 3rd trainer. Mine crapped out two years ago, and Rick had bought one that he seldom used, so I took his. He decided this year he wants another trainer so he just set one up last evening. Add to the trainer our constant 60-degree cellar, a DVD player, and we have the perfect set-up for a training room. No, it ain't perty - but who cares! And my collection of Coach Troy DVDs (Spinervals) takes the boredom out out trainerdom. I have about 11 DVDs now (you HAVE to have a lot to keep it from getting boring). Lately though, I've been reaching for the same DVD nearly every time I get on the bike for a long ride (3+ hrs). I love Hardcore 100. It's a group of maybe 30 people that Coach Troy coaches through a 5:30 hr ride! Yup, it's a 3-DVD set totalling over 5 and half hours of riding if you stick it out for the duration. I've made it to three hours, but fully intend to go longer 'cause the way the DVD is set up makes it interesting - you get to watch the folks on their bikes and train with them through really long sets and repetitions. Coach Troy has you shifting, standing, and changing things up throughout. But what makes it REAL fun is you start to learn the people. I haven't learned them by name, but "features" make them stick out. There's a much older gentleman that is always smiling at the camera and talking (but you can't hear what he's saying). Dang it if HE can get through this DVD, so can I! The one gal really needs to pull her zipper up on her top - I guess that's why the camera is focused on her tits all the time. Another gal wobbles back and forth in her seat; and the personal trainer seems SO full of energy that even at the 5 hour marker she's about to start spinning around the room. It's fun -- I really like the DVD. But there ARE moments of boredom... so the safety glasses went on for fun.

Fun at Christmas

Oh what fun it is perusing the sale sections of newspapers. Check out these bargains:

Personal cup coffee brewers: $89.99 ($90 for one cup of coffee? Seems a little salty, doesn’t it?)

Single wine bottle chiller: $79.99 (add $200 and you can get an entire refrigerator WITH a freezer compartment!)
Automatic Wine Opener: $29.99 (What… it’s too hard to crank, turn, and pull by hand?!)
Automatic Hands-free soap dispenser - $29.99 (yup… that pumping hurts the heal of my hand)
Frappe Maker - $79.99 (what the hell is a frappe?)
Steam Jewelry Cleaner - $79.99
Triple-track electric shaver - $199.99
Deluxe Nose/Ear Hair Trimmer with Vacuum - $29.99 (just what I need, a nose hair vacuum -- Eewe!)
Bone-shaped dog bed - $12.99

And my favorite: the “Mangroomer” (an electric back hair shaver) - $39.99

All Will Be Well 5K Run

Saturday was a charity 5K run/walk for Dan Lyons, a 23-year old gent diagnosed with leukemia. He was an intern this summer at my work and he's the type of guy that you instantly like. The lovableness showed yesterday with the turnout for the event -- maybe 300 people? Not sure, but it was pretty crowded for a small high school event. I can count on one hand the number of 5Ks I ran in my life (my preference is longer stuff), but this was one was a little special. We heard about the 5K at work at a time when two Biggest Loser team mates were starting to run a little more to lose weight and thinking about being able the run a 5K without stopping. Bingo -- this 5K was going to be their goal. So three weeks ago, Joann and Madra could easily walk 3 miles with a couple minutes of running thrown in the mix, but never ran a full 3 miles without stopping. Yesterday they not only ran 3.2 miles with nary a stop, but they ran part of it off-road. The course was around the perimeter of the Trinity High school. So we did some small hills, a lot of grass running, a tiny bit of trail running, and some track running. The key for both girls was the pace. In our practice runs at work, we kept it slow, slow, slow so they would not tire out and want to rest. Madra likes to pick up the pace, but Joann and I were quick to reel her back in and remind her of the goal - finish. At the race, we really had to focus on the pace because its SO easy to want to stick with the group that took off at the start like horses out of the gate. By the end, maybe a dozen or more of those fast starters were walking and we passed them all and finished without a single stop. Madra thought it took too long (37 minutes), but longer times are normal for off-road. There's clearly a difference between running in grass and running on asphalt. I'm proud of them both! Two new runners have just entered the running the world.

Another 50-year Old Inspiration

I picked up an Oxygen magazine because I liked the haircut of a girl in the magazine not so much for the content of the mag -- women's bodybuilding. (Although I used to lift weights in another life and played with power lifting for a very brief time in 1987 - ha! Me, SUMU wrestler Chili! Funny). Perusing the mag, I come to find a fellow 50-year old with an inspiring story. Tosca Reno. She turned 40, was overweight, and decided to do something about it. Today, at 50, look at her! She did it through changing her eating habits and a lot of exercise - mostly weight-lifting. She's also the author of The Eat Clean Diet. It's pretty darn amazing what good food and little exercise will do for the 50-year old body. Damn -- there's hope for me yet!

Transylvania Epic Update

I got some inside scoop that a media event was held last weekend in State College on the Transylvania Epic and I said, "I'll bet Fit Chick was there." Sure enough, she was. And here's her take on the Event -- she updated her blog and wrote about it. The Transylvania Epic is a 7-stage mountain bike race to be held next May 31-June 5 2010. You have to have 3 riders from a team finish each 25-35 mile stage per day, or you could ride the entire 7 days solo which many folks will do. I'm guessing a team of 9 average riders could handle the race. "Average" meaning a rider that could do a 25-35 mountain bike ride one day, take a day off, then do it again? I guess maybe when you think about it that's really not average now is it. Each Team member could pick the stages they'd like to do which are interesting little loops. The new Raystown trails are one of the loops, and one of my favorite rides is in there too - RB Winter. Some other state college Epic rides are part of the stages also. Cool stuff.

Born to Run - What a Read!

What a read! Who would have thought I’d be mesmerized by a book on a bunch of Mexican Indians (Tarahumara) in the Copper Canyons in Mexico, racing against some of America’s best ultra runners like Scott Jurek. It was fabulous and brought tears to my eyes at the end. Perhaps the “star” of the book, “Caballo”, said it best in the end when offered a sponsorship from North Face: “No, thanks, I don’t want anyone to do anything except come run, party, dance, eat, and hang with us. Running isn’t about making people buy stuff. Running should be free, man.” And isn’t that what its really all about – living free and having fun? Which is pretty much what the Tarahumara do all day, every day – eat (corn, chia seeds, beans – they’re vegetarian!), run, drink corn beer, and sleep. Sparing you a long review (you can get those anywhere on the web!), suffice it to say it’s a good read with a spectacular ending where Caballo tells his life story. How he was born a scrawny marine kid who took up boxing to “fight” off the wise cracks of being a geek; how he got famous boxing, lost his girlfriend to another guy (and was devastated), and ended up in Maui living in a cave and running the side of the dormant volcano, Haleakala (Ricky and I were there!); how he to-this-day lives in a hut in Mexico and runs “free” with the Tarahumara and only goes back to the states to make a couple bucks to survive another year. The author did a fabulous job of pulling the characters together and describing the uniqueness of them all. Barefoot Ted, Jenn and Billy, the Tarahumara, Caballo (above in the pic), and of course himself, Christopher McDougall who works for Rodale (writes for Runners' World and Men's Health) and lives and runs in central PA! (don’t they all!?) Born to Run is currently #68 on Amazon's top sellers list. I think I’ll go for a run now!