Rainy Sunday

It's a rainy and cool Sunday. It was raining thus morning so I didn't rude in the Tour de Toad. Some people still rode. I heard they were riding through lots of water and even some hail. Not for me, I just did a trainer ride.

Chili is a great meal when it's cold and rainy, so today made a great opportunity to make some. My dinner is pictured below!

Crawfish Season

One of the great things about spring time is that it is also crawfish season. The best time to get crawfish is from February till around June. After June, they become too large and the shells are hard.

Crawfish boils are a great way to get people together for a gathering. You can find just your friends having them or even charities having large scale boils. One example is the Craws for a Cause event in Little Rock. Here are $45.0o ticket gets you all you can eat and drink.

We had a crawfish boil at work today. We normally have a monthly lunch and this one by far my favorite.

Washing the crawfish down before boiling

Sausage, potatoes, onions, lemons, mushrooms, and corn are some other items you can add to the pot.

Cooking up the crawfish.

My own destruction. I'm full now! I just have to wait one more week until another crawfish boil.

Change the Weekend Plans

Weekend plans can change in hurry sometimes. On Wednesday, I found out that the Spillway Triathlon that I was supposed to race in had been canceled. They canceled it due to storm damage/debris along the race course. Also, the volunteers were from Teen Challenge. The Teen Challenge facility was hit by a tornado this week, so the race could not put together volunteers on a short notice. The race director was gracious enough to allow you to roll your registration amount into any of the other races that DLT manages. Since, I have a couple more in mind for this year I appreciate this.

So onto to the new plans! I now plan to race in the Toad Suck 10k and participate in the Tour de Toad. The TS 10k is here in Conway, so I'll just have a short distance to travel for this race. I hope to beat my time from last year. My running is feeling pretty strong, so I'll just have to wait and see. The weather is also looking pretty reasonable for the race also. It will probably be in the 60s at the start with no rain.

The Tour de Toad is a bicycle tour that goes West of Conway. You can either do a 33 or 46 mile route. I'll do the 46 mile route. This will be a great training ride and also a chance to meet other riders from the area or elsewhere. I'm sure it will be a casual ride which will be nice. Hopefully the rain hold off for this or it rains Saturday night. Rain will cancel this event.

Wild Weather and iPhone Tracking

Wild Weather
Well it has been wild weather here the past two days. It started Monday afternoon when severe storms fired up in SW Arkansas and began to hit Conway around 5:00pm. I was just getting home when the first sirens when off in Conway. Between 5 - 8, we had the sirens sound 4 times. There was never a tornado touchdown, but the storms were rotating. Two of the storms passed directly over my house. You would see the weatherman on TV identifying streets and I was within a mile of those streets.

On Tuesday, they were predicting more severe weather. Even the Angel of Doom (Jim Cantore) was making an appearance in Arkansas. Jim Cantore is from the Weather Channel and ususally heads to places that have the most extreme storms. Tuesday was not as bad. The sirens went off only once.

During this time, I was glued to the TV watching the weather. You have four choices to watch like Channel 4, 7, 11, or 16. I would flip back and forth between them. I would have to say the best coverage is probably channel 4, then 16, 11, and finally channel 7. I actually thought 7 was by far the worst. They also don't have HD. All of the others had a clearer crisper picture and if you are going to be watching the boring weather it better be in HD.

iPhone Tracking
Recently on the news, there were reports that Apple was tracking your iPhone. Basically, whenever, you backup your phone the backup file is stored on your computer. Inside this file is information that details areas where your iPhone has been. Now these are not exact locations, but they do show a general area on where you've been. Apple says they are not using the data, but still the data is there. The website iPhone Tracker has a program that will displays this data on a map. Below you will see the places that I've been since Nov of 2010. You must have the iOS4 to have this data. Also, this program on only works on Macs right now.

The picture above is from Oct/Nov 2010 - thru today. You can see the places I've been to or traveled thru. It shows my trip from Conway to Jacksonville, FL clearly. However, it does do not show real clearly is when I went from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh or St. Louis to Conway. It does show some points on the St. Louis trip, but not all. If I had a zoomed in picture of Atlanta, you would see that all the points are from the airport.

Here is a closer point on the NE.

Above is the NYC area. The Long Island dots show when I was surveying in the area, but does not have a detailed route.

Testing for my 3rd Dan Black Belt

This weekend I will be testing for my 3rd degree (dan) black belt. I have been a 2nd dan since August of 2009. As you advance, the timing between testing becomes longer and the testings require more work and knowledge. It also requires plenty of patience. Each of the black belt certificates that we get have our numbered, my black belt was numbered around 1400. My first dan was numbered around 600, and finally my 2nd dan was in the 300 range.

The testing will require me to do (4) forms, 4-5 drills that simulate fighting and defending, 4 or 5 drills of intercept kicks, 5 or more kicking drills, 1-30 self defense, and finally 2 sparring matches between 1-2 minutes each.

During this time between testing, the best way to help it go by faster is teaching. Teaching a class allows you to give back the knowledge that you have been learning and learned to the students in the organization. While you are patiently waiting to test, you are helping others progress in the organization. We always encourage others to begin help teaching as soon as possible. The thirst for knowledge and the giving back is one of the best ways to prevent boredom.

Local Weekly Riding Information

This an email sent from The Ride about riding opportunities in the Conway, AR and Arkansas for the week of 3-21.

Monday-5:30PM, The Ride. Morrilton Out and Back. Pace will be moderate as an intended fun ride/recovery ride from a weekend of good riding. We will be leaving the shop via Donaghey to Tyler to Hogan.

Thursday-5:30PM, The Ride. Bigelow lollipop, pace very fast. We will be leaving the shop via Donaghey to Tyler. This is not a no-drop ride, please know the route and have your own supplies with you (extra tube and such). Everyone can ride as hard as they like. Bring a friend with you to grow the ride and make sure you always have company.

The Ranch Ride Training Program
...begins this Sunday. Meet at Conway Regional Health and Fitness Center at 2:00PM for some very valuable pre-ride education time regarding riding in groups and in traffic followed by a question and answer session. Then we will have time to change clothes and will ride at 3:00PM. The ride will be Lolly Bottoms. See www.theranchride.com for more details. There will also be a group trianing ride on Thursday night at CRHFC at 6PM.

Tour de Cure
Join CAB as they are building a Tour de Cure team to ride in the upcoming Little Rock tour. They aim to average around the mid teens. This will be a great ride. The Ride will be matching donations raised up to $1500 for the CAB team. For more details email Peter Mehl at peterm@uca.edu

Tour de Toad
The Tour de Toad is on and scheduled for Sunday, May 1st, 8:00AM at the Conway High School West campus. This year's tour is looking to be a great one and the order has been placed for good weather. Come out and support this great local classic and support the Faulkner Literacy Council right from your bicycle seat. Click here to register now.

The Slobberknocker
Saturday, April 30 · 8:00am - 11:00am. You'll want to put this new gravel grinder at Lake Sylvia on your schedule of events. This will be a great one to do the day before the Tour de Toad. Click CARVE to register for this new favorite.

Click for a complete listing of cycling events in Arakansas

The Ride Hours
Sunday 12-4
Mon-Fri 10-6

Back in Conway & Prediction Run

Well I've had a busy two weeks. Last week, I went to Syracuse and Orlando and returned to Conway on Wednesday. In between, Syracuse and Orlando, I saw it snow 8" in Conway. In Orlando, I set up a convention show for a customer and worked 12 hrs Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday! I didn't get much running in, but I think standing on your feet and working should count for something right! I'm glad to be back in town for right now and get things back to normal.

Sporty Runner Prediction Run
This was a fun run put on by a local running shoe store here in Conway. This was a two mile where you predict your time. You run with no watches. I couldn't decided what to pick, so I went with a slower time. I figured going easy would be easier to pace than faster. The time I selected was 18:15. The run started and off we went. The crosses railroad tracks twice during the run. I joked before the start, how do we figure our time if a train comes! Of course, just as I was approaching the second crossing, I hear a train horn blowing! The question becomes speed up or slow down? What's my time? I decided to hurry up and cross the tracks. Once across I slow down because the finish is approaching. I head towards the finish and cross in 16:46! Oops, guess my prediction was wrong. The pace felt easy throughout, so I did as well as I could! The winner was off by 1 sec.

The Return of Me

Well ok, I've fallen by the wayside since I last posted an entry. I think it's time to get back to it and see where this goes. Over the last couple of months, I've been pretty busy with work and life. I've neglected this blog and now is the time again to get started.

I've completed two races since my race at Lubbock. The first race was the Toad Suck 66 here in Conway, AR. This race was a 1 mile swim, a 52 mile ride, and a 12 mile run. It is run by DLT events. The race morning started with rain as I was driving to the site. It quit raining once I got there, but I knew more rain was on the way. We started the swim with overcast skies. The swim did not start off well as my goggles came off on the swim. Once I put them back on, it was back to racing. Once out of the water, I realized that I would have a lot of catching up to do. I got on my bike and off I went. The ride takes you on two loops using the foothills north of Conway. It is an up and down ride. I was riding really well. I was catching people. I figured since this was last race of the year it was time to hammer. The rain started to come down and didn't stop until about 2:30:00 into the bike. I got off the bike and onto the run. It was clearing by then and it was overcast, so it keep the temperatures down a little. I was able to run really well off the bike. I was able to hold a 8:30 per mile pace. It was best run off the bike off the year. I was able to finish 9th overall and 2nd in my AG. It was a small race, but I was out there racing.

The second race was the Soaring Wings half marathon here in Conway. It is a local race that supports a place that takes care of abused and neglected children. The race actually has a good turn out. There were around 1400 people participating. I have been training for the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, so I was hoping the distance training would pay off with a PR in the half-marathon. Well the race started off well, but by the time I got to the 6 mile mark, I started to feel off. My pace fell and I knew that a PR was gone. At this point, I was trying to maintain at least an 8:00-8:15 as a practice for the marathon. It was a tough race and it gave me some stuff to look at for the marathon I have coming up.