Cycling, Fitness and Other Things
Fitness
Run – to H Avenue to Starbucks (8:47 pace)
01242 days
Today marks my fastest two mile pace. I ran at starting around 10:00am and it was about 86 degrees, which is warmer outside than I prefer. It was a hard run and it was tiring. However, it is my fastest pace to date at 8:47 per mile. That is 11 seconds faster per mile than my previous best time.
I love Gmail!
01243 days
by douglaspaulwade
in Fitness
One thing I love is Gmail. For a mail program, it is great. I use it, because:
- Free
- Unlimited Space (not, but for me, it is I am 9% of my limit)
- Portable
- Labels (no folders)
- Search that works fast
- Great Spam Control
How is started for me was that with using the MS operating systems it is required to do a fresh install from time to time and I have to place everything back online or restore the files. I was using Outlook (still have to use it at work, ick). I must restore those files and my wife’s. First, I have to be very good about doing backups, really that is not a problem, but with Gmail, that is not an effort. That cost (time) is transferred back on to Google. Way cool, did I mention it is Free! There are many features that I love, but labels is near the top of my list.
Labels:
Labels are cool. I do not have to move files around into folders, which if you use outlook is what you do. Moving files into .pst files (2 gig limit) and search is a real slow. Labels do the same thing, but without moving things around into folders. Actually it is better, but that is another post. Google is adding feature sets all the time, and lately Google has added Gmail labs where they try and you can try out new features.
Today they added three labels into the labs. Cool. I add labels to identify emails that come from people or groups, keyword. It is not limited to one label. I can add many labels to one email message. I have five email accounts that are aggreagate into gmail. So, I label them from which account they are coming from. The best part with labels the emails are not moved into folders. They stay in the same spot and search is fast to find them. Here is my labels.
Here is some information on the new Gmail labs with labels.
Since launching the first batch of 13 Gmail Labs features, Gmail has received a lot of suggestions for more cool features using Labels (and other items).
Custom label colors, by Mark K
If the 24 standard color choices aren’t your thing, enable this feature to create your own custom color combination. Instead of choosing one of the standard colors from the label drop-down menu, click “Add custom colors,” pick your palette, hit “Apply,” and enjoy.
Go to label keyboard shortcut, by Bruce D
Never have to click on a label again. Instead, enable keyboard shortcuts and press “g” then “l” to display the “Go to label” pop-up. Start typing, and your labels will be filtered as you go. You can use the arrow keys to select a label and hit “Enter” to select one.
Powertip: The pop-up searches each word in your labels for a match, so if you have multiple labels with the same prefix, simply add a space, dash or slash after the prefix and search for the second word. For example, typing “labs” will display labels named “gmail labs,” “gmail-labs,” or “gmail/labs” but won’t display “gmaillabs.”
Navbar drag and drop, by Anatol P
If Labels are more important to you than your Contacts, you can switch them around with this Labs feature, which allows you to reorder the items in Gmail’s lefthand navigation bar using drag and drop.
To turn on these Labs features and more, just go to the Labs tab under Settings.
Tonight’s Run (8:58 pace)
01246 days
Tonight marks the first time that I ran under a nine minute mile. I ran tonight at a 8:58 pace, beating my last run by two seconds. I felt I was running faster and I expected to beat my time by 10 seconds, because I felt that good. Or at least contrasting how I felt from Sunday’s run, which was really hard on me. Tonight I was not that labored. However, it all felt good because it was at night and 70 degrees. I eat an hour before the run, stretched well. My left knee hurt just prior to starting, but no real pain when I ran. Normally, a lot things hurt prior to running, it is my body telling me that it does not want to do this stuff.
Today’s Run
01248 days
Today, being Sunday morning and it is my slowest day of the week, I wanted to get out and run. I have not run since last Tuesday night. I was going to run my normal two miles from my street up to Avenue H back past my street to Starbucks.
Today, I was so not motivated to run, I still feel very tired. But, I started at 7:30am with some treadmill work, to warm up, followed by some stretching. I got out and ran at 8:00 am. The run was very hard on me. I wanted to stop but having my GPS on keeps me going. The results on the GPS makes it hard to stop. I did stop to walk twice (believe it or not) for a short moment, but the guilt was too much and I started running again.
I figured today would be a terrible day to record, but I ran hard and my breathing was labored. I guessed that my pace would be between 9:15 and 9:30, but to my surprise it was 9:00 exactly. I was running fast and that is why I was so labored. Today’s result’s is the fastest to date. Here is my motionbased results.
Ride – 29 Miles
01248 days
Clay Patten and I talked about riding together, and we want to do the AV Fall Century in October. Clay is a machine. He is very very fit, while I am a guy with some form of fitness that is clearly really different than Clay’s.
For the ride, I met Clay at his house and rode to Munz Ranch road, over to Lake Elizabeth road, and over Godde hill back to his house.
This was the first time I rode up Godde. Clay being the fit machine, actually push me up some of the 1.2 miles of hill. Man, I feel so not fit around him. I will confess, that I was not ready for the ride. I did not feel well, my stomach and head were not in the game. With all of the hours at work and things going on, I was emotionally tired, which relates to being physically tired. The heat (over 100 degrees) did not help, nor not eating (stomach was a mess) prior to the ride.
Overall the ride was fun, It was an average of 13.9 pace. It should have been in the 15-17 pace, but we will try again next week?
Run – Avenue H
01253 days
Tonight I wanted again to run from the house to Avenue H. I ran this path last Saturday and Sunday. Teri wanted to run at Joe Walker Middle School. I am not a big fan of running in circles. I won out, we will run done the street. I eat 1-1/2 hour before and we set out around 9:00pm. I warmed up on the treadmill and did some stretching. Teri did not want to run by herself. She does not like me running in front of her. So, I gave her a four minute head start. I set my timer on my watch and turned on the GPS and started to run. I felt pretty good and I did not pass Teri but finished behind her by about 100 feet. So the four minute head start is about right.
I ran at 9:04 pace, my best ever on this route. I am still looking to beat the nine minute pace.
Run – Home to H Avenue (day 2)
01255 days
Today, I stretched and went running. My knees felt a little sore, but It was a good run. My breathing was much better then yesterday when it seemed so much more labored. I thought I was holding back until the very end, where I was going add in my kick. I ran well, felt it was my best run for this little circuit, but when I processed the results, it was slightly off from yesterday. My pace was 9:21 (yesterday was 9:16). I am bummed, but, oh well.
Stretching…
01255 days
by douglaspaulwade
in Fitness
When my friend Clay (owner of Valley Physical Therapy Group) works with me, he tells me how stiff I am. Which I refer to myself as being an Oak. He is working with me to loosen me up. He has given me some exercises to do, which I am doing. Mostly the exercises are to stretch my Gluts and Hip Flexors.
To supplement his work, I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday and was looking at books on stretching. I purchased, “the Stark Reality of Stretching”, by Dr. Steven D. Stark. I like that is was a small and easy read book, I do not need a ton of medical information, but was looking for stretches for the lower extremity and things to avoid. I am about three fourths the way through it now. I did what I read so far before this mornings run. I will post wha t l liked in another post shortly.
Run – Home to Avenue H
01256 days
by douglaspaulwade
in Fitness
Being the first day of a three day weekend, I wanted to start running again or start running consistently. I got out and ran from the house to the Avenue H and back to Starbucks. It is two miles. I felt pretty good, but my breathing was labored. My pace was 9:16, the fastest to date on the run to H Avenue.
Ride to Work
01260 days
This morning ride was nice, not much to report. I still did not get up to 18MPH. Here is the motionbase results.
