How I Spend My Time

Since 1999 I've been an assistant cross country coach at the high school where I ran cross country!  When I started this I took pride in being able to keep up with the team, if only on the long run runs.  I still run but more often it's alone or with the coach who has decided to go at my pace rather than his pace.  We plan and troubleshoot the competitive season on those runs.  From June until the end of October I'm immersed in the day to day lives of these young men. Today is the first day of the "off season", the time between cross country and track.   I'll see the team only occasionally between now and June, although I may drop in on track since I'm retired now.  I reminisce about this season during runs on the dune trails.  Fall will always mean cross country.

Tempus Fugit

It's been awhile since I've posted! Summer's almost gone. I spent most of August away from any running due to a recurring injury that reduced me to a walk at the trail marathon I went to at the end of July. I just returning to running now-September. I put together two record (for me) months of bike and commuting.








July bike miles =555
August bike miles=634.9
2008 bike miles =3186.85

Price of a gallon of gas=$4.25

GO CUBS!

Where have I been?

Time flies sometimes, doesn't it? Seems like yesterday I was mourning the end of the Tour de France, and now it's a few days from the beginning of Autumn.

I had 319.2 biking miles in August. I was gone for a week at cross country camp so no riding. I'll update my yearly mileage in another post (I may just wait until the end of September now).

I bought a replacement computer on Ebay, a Dell Demension 8200 series computer for $62.00. I think it was a pretty good deal although the cost of upgrading the RAM memory is a little steep because the memory modules must be installed in pairs. I'm hoping to add this computer to the new wireless network I have at home. The primary reason I went with a used desktop is when I went to Best Buy to purchase a cable to attach my printer to my lap top, the cost was $36.00! At that point I figured for a few more bucks a could buy a used computer to connect the printer via the serial cable I already had and network it to the laptop. I'm still waiting for the Dell to arrive in the mail.

I got my yearly late summer, allergy-driven, cold about a week and a half ago. As usual it began with bronchitis-like symptoms. It started after I tried to set a personal best for the bike ride home from work a couple of Thursdays ago because I had a crazy strong tail wind. That night I couldn't sleep because I had this familiar "post nasel drip" (a nice way of saying that crap was clogging my throat!). I tried to ignor my sickness for a couple of days, hoping it would just disappear on it's own, but that didn't work. I eventually took a day to just sleep and read in bed all day. I did get a good ways into the sixth Harry Potter book. I finished it yesterday and am ready for the last book now. I'm almost back to noraml except I'm still coughing more than is normal for me.

We're in the heart of the high school cross country season now. Our team Chesterton High School is ranked in the top 20 in the state so far. Our traditional goal is to qualify to compete in the state meet that is held at the end of October. We're cautiously optimistic about our chances. As I may have mentioned elsewhere, I'm the assistant coach.

That's where I've been!