Rag and Bone

Sunday, July 25, 2010
Better week than last, certainly. With a real long run and one or two runs at lunch during work, it'll be pretty trivial to run 65-70. Based on some of Kevin's advice, I may wait to bump it up to 70 until I feel comfortable enough to be able to push it without forcing it a few days a week.

Sun: 4 mi, 30 mins - first day running after getting sick.
Mon: 7 mi, 51 mins - don't even remember where I went for this run.
Tue: 8 mi, 58 mins - took the Greenway to Prospect St. in Waltham - hadn't ever gone that far on that path before. It's actually pretty nice, even though it's paved for the most part.
Wed: 6.5 mi, 49 mins - Up to Cold Spring and 1.5 times around, with a little extra before.
Thu: 8.5 mi, 57 mins - Cold Spring and 3 loops around - picked it up quite a bit. In general I really have not done that in the summer, because it's hard enough to just get the mileage in - but the 3:30.90 1500m I saw right before running might have had something to do with it!
Fri: 6 mi, 44 mins - to Comm Ave, took the right and went to the intersection w/ Washington St and back. With about half a pound of pasta in my stomach.
Sat: 10 mi, 72 mins - To Cold Spring, 3 loops - then out left on Beacon to pick up some extra time and back home. Based on this run, I am fairly sure the grossest sound in the world is the sound of a completely waterlogged pair of split shorts slapping against my pasty white thighs.

tot: 50 miles, 358 minutes

I'd Rather Not

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Quick update - last week, a virus stole its way into my body like Ali Baba into the cave of the Forty Thieves. Evidently, my immune system will lay down for anyone wielding a simplistic passphrase. As a result, I got a solid 60 minutes of running in 7 days.

The weather makes having a fever especially miserable and especially difficult to tell whether it's gone or not. I am getting a flu shot fo' sho' this fall when the time comes around - I hate needles, but I have officially decided that I hate being sick more.

On the bright side, I got my car (officially dubbed 'Apollo') back from the shop just on Monday. I took it in on Thursday to have the rear bumper and some scratches on the driver's side quarter panel fixed - unfortunate that they got damaged in the first place, but the fixes look great. Joe at LA Auto Body did a really nice job - and he ended up doing about 4 extra hours worth of work on the back panel, too (without charging me).

I'm taking it back for him to polish it up next week (he said there were some finishing touches he wanted to do) but I may also ask to have the transmission / diff fluid changed at some point. I'm comfortable with changing my oil on this car now, but transmission fluid I'd rather have a pro do at this point. Plus, I hear diff fluid smells horrendous.

The reason I want to get it done (besides wanting to get Redline in there, rather than whatever the factory defaults are) is...because I'm planning on going autocrossing for the first time soon! The New England Region of SCCA has an event at Devens-Moore Airfield in a few weeks. Considering the part where I'm least experienced is probably still shifting - I haven't even tried heel-and-toeing yet and the downshifts are far from smooth - I'd like all the help I can get. Though, of the few videos I've watched of guys racing RX-8's, it looks like they just jam it in second gear and leave it there. You can get up to 55 or so without hitting the redline in 2nd, and I doubt you're really exceeding that ever on an autocross course.

All this talk of vehicles makes me want to go drive. It's unfortunate that it takes so long to get to Williamstown from here - going on the Mohawk Trail (Route 2) in the Berkshires is just heavenly in this car. I would almost have to peg it up there with being as exhilarating as running a perfect 800/1500. Not quite, but it's pretty amazing.