Sunday, December 31, 2023
Looking Forward to '24 with My Running, Walking and Swimming
Saturday, December 30, 2023
My December 2023 Running/Walking/Swimming Report
Friday, December 29, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Kurt Cobain
Thursday, December 28, 2023
My Top Ten Favorite Songs of 2023
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1994 Science Fiction, Part 7
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Tail End of 2023 Here
Now that it's officially past Christmas day, I suppose a lot of people regard the upcoming week preceding New Years Day as the time for refunds and exchanges of gifts not wanted or the wrong shape, size or color. For me it's a brief period for me to reflect on the year winding down and contemplating ahead to 2024. If the next calendar year is anything like it was in 2020 when we had the insane presidential election, the Covid crisis outbreak and the nationwide protests following the George Floyd killing, I'd better brace myself. Yet I have high hopes for my health, self-improvement, fun and adventures as well as for my loved ones. I am optimistically looking forward to 2024, and sensationalism and media manipulation can just take a back seat to my own agendas, thank you very much. May this week prepare you for what's to come, including bringing a sense of perspective and balance to your own lives...
Monday, December 25, 2023
Merry Christmas
I'd like to wish all of you and yours a very merry and safe Christmas and holiday season. It's been fun writing this blog for you over the years and I appreciate your readership...let me know if you have a blog or plan to start one! Again, season's greetings!
Sunday, December 24, 2023
Swimming: My Past, Present and Future
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Walked Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning
When I speed-walked my first 5K (3.1 miles) back in May, I had originally planned to try for at least one walking race per month. But then I underwent some back issues, followed by a Covid diagnosis...the momentum for this ebbed. This month I decided to return to my idea and made my way down to Gainesville's pretty Depot Park this morning to walk their weekly, free and volunteer-driven 5K...it's my 30th race there since I started in 2019. The temperature at race time was 56 with the humidity at 90%...not important factors. Just as in May, I felt a little weird sticking to a fast walk at the start of the race when all these others were running past me. But I maintained my speed and at the end beat my May finishing time by nearly three minutes: 42:20. Afterwards I wasn't the least bit tired or winded, and so I went on an "extra" 2.3 mile run in the park's vicinity, including a stretch of the Hawthorne Trail. I like walking fast like this and have already incorporated it both into my gym workout (treadmill speed-walking on Wednesdays) and my racing Galloway Method of alternating running with walking...with me the latter is always at a quick pace. Speaking of the gym, I've been a member of Gainesville Health and Fitness for more than ten years, and finally last night I got around to using their wonderful 75 ft. indoor lap pool. I managed to swim one length doing the American crawl while floating and paddling backwards on the return lap...good start, but I have a long way to go. I've never been a very agile or fast swimmer, but I think I'll use Friday evenings as my "swim night" and see how far I can go with it. As for today's Depot Parkrun results, you can see them by clicking HERE...
Friday, December 22, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Albert Einstein
Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth. ---Albert Einstein
Thursday, December 21, 2023
Will Florida NFL Teams Make Playoffs
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1994 Science Fiction, Part 6
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Closing In On Christmas
Today is just six days until Christmas...it's been a long time since I was caught up in the Holiday spirit to the degree that so many of my fellow humans are. It's a consumer/marketing onslaught as the malls and stores...along with the streets connecting them...are clogged with frantic shoppers. I'll probably end up as one of them before it's over: "yikes" is all I can say. I can't pinpoint the exact year when I became disenchanted with all this materialistic push, but I do know that I was still a child at the time the big swing happened. It doesn't make sense...we're celebrating the birth of the one individual standing strong as the antithesis of materialism while using the concept of mutual generosity to cover up our mutual covetousness and greed. Oops...is that the Goth part of me seeping out, getting negative on humanity? On the other hand, I positively dig the coming together of my family, both close and extended, as we shop with and for one another...going to the Oaks Mall the other day with Melissa was precious, something I value deeply. So, I guess it's all a mixed bag...if I were just some cranky, crochety old hermit, I might say "Bah humbug" and be done with it. Instead, I still say that old Scrooge line but realize there's also some love to accompany the "stuff" ...
Monday, December 18, 2023
Tired of Running Race Promoters' Sloppiness with Posting Past Results
The other day, when I updated my cumulative running race record, which has links to the articles I wrote on this blog about each race right after I ran them, I took the time to read a few of them...and then click on the links I provided to the posted results. Most of them...especially the older ones...had expired and presented error pages. Now there are sites that specialize in collecting race results and repost them...for them I am grateful: all is not lost! My main beef nowadays are the race site home pages that offer past results but either don't post them or do so in an incomplete manner, omitting some sections. To me that is just callous sloppiness and disregard for the runners who most likely have shelled out some good money to have their finishing times recorded and publicly posted. After all, I can design any length of course around my own neighborhood and then run and time myself for my own personal use...but in the end it's just my word that I ran that distance in that time. The value of a publicly held race for me is largely in that public record of my results...I think it's a sort of breach of contract between me and the race organizers for them to promise and have electronic chip timing and then fail to properly post the results. Lately, I have been making decisions as to whether I will enter races based on how I see the organizers treat past results on their own websites...and in Gainesville it hasn't been pretty. No, change that: it's been pretty all right...pretty slaphappy...
Sunday, December 17, 2023
Just Finished Reading The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning
Amidst a cool (56 degrees), humid 93% morning with overcast, dark skies and gusty winds, I somehow sprang up out of bed at six this morning to once again tackle the free, volunteer-driven Depot Parkrun 5K here in Gainesville just a few blocks south of downtown. I had been working out at my local gym after work and knew I was getting into better running shape, but I hadn't anticipated...even with my Galloway Method of interspersing short walking breaks with my running...of annihilating my Parkrun personal best, finishing at 28:57...my best 5K result since 2016. Immediately following the run I covered another 1.8 miles along SE 4th Street, 10th Avenue, the Hawthorne Trail and then back on Depot Road to my parking lot. Total for the run: 4.9 miles, 47:15. Now I'm sitting (for the first time) at the Starbucks near University Avenue on NW 13th Street which is really an extension of the Publix store there...it's instantly become my favorite Starbucks! Yesterday I had been considering getting up even earlier today and driving down to Ocala to run their Baseline Trailhead Park race, but the enrollment had been capped off...maybe another time. As for the Parkrun extension I did this morning, I'd like to make that a regular Saturday morning feature while making some adjustments in my route. As for today's race, click HERE for the results. As for my cumulative running record posting on December 10th, I decided to add each subsequent race I do to it...
Friday, December 15, 2023
Quote of the Week...from René Descartes
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Weather to Get Rainy, About Running
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1994 Science Fiction, Part 5
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Podcaster Extols Misogi Method: What Is It?
Monday, December 11, 2023
Internet a Great Information Source, But Old Data Often Disappears
Sunday, December 10, 2023
My Updated Cumulative Lifetime Running Race Record
2-14-10 HM 2:17:10 Five Points of Life (1) Gainesville
3-27-10 15K 1:23:55 Climb for Cancer Haile Plantation
4-24-10 5K 23:05 Run Amuck NFR Office Park
5-22-10 5K 25:00 Somer's Sunshine Run Orange Park
6-05-10 5K 23:23 Cpt. Chad Reed Memorial Cross City
7-04-10 3m 23:04 Melon Run (1) Westside Park
11-6-10 HM 2:01:41 Tom Walker Memorial (1) Hawthorne Trail
1-23-11 M 6:04:35 Ocala Marathon South of Paddock Mall
11-12-11 HM 1:59:38 Tom Walker Memorial (2) Hawthorne Trail
1-01-12 HM 1:56:07 De Leon Springs De Leon Springs
7-04-12 3m 25:45 Melon Run (2) Westside Park
11-22-12 10K 53:10 Turkey Trot (1) Tacachale
1-20-13 HM 1:55:20 Ocala Half-Marathon South of Paddock Mall
3-03-13 HM 1:50:53 Orange Blossom Tavares
11-09-13 2m untimed Gator Gallop University Ave, SW 2nd Ave
2-01-14 5K 25:53 Education for Life Westside Park
2-16-14 HM 2:07:36 Five Points of Life (2) Gainesville
11-27-14 10K 56:56 Turkey Trot (2) Tacachale
12-20-14 HM 2:03:30 Starlight Half-Marathon Palm Coast
1-31-15 15K 1:18:21 Newnan's Lake (1) West of Newnan's Lake
2-15-15 HM 1:58:48 Five Points of Life (3) Gainesville
3-14-15 10K 56:24 Run for Haven (1) Tioga
12-05-15 6.5m 1:03:52 Lumber Around the Levee Micanopy
1-30-16 15K 1:31:20 Newnan's Lake (2) West of Newnan's Lake
3-12-16 10K 59:00 Run for Haven (2) Tioga
5-14-16 5K 28:36 May Day Glow Run (1) Tioga