A while ago I mentioned I was going to run another marathon. While that's not going to happen for another few months (in November in San Jose), I have been following a training plan for about a month now and yesterday I was scheduled for a 13 mile long run. My friend Steve wanted to run the San Francisco half marathon, so we both signed up. After getting up really early (4am) we drove into San Francisco and lined up to get started around 5:45am. Our goal was to run the whole thing in under 2 hours, which meant we had to run a mile pace of around 9 minutes.
The route led us along the Embarcadero, Fisherman's Wharf, through Crissy Fields and up to the Golden Gate bridge (tough climb), across the brodge to the Vista point, back over the bridge and down into Golden Gate Park where we finished after 13.1 miles. We did in slightly under 1 hour and 58 minutes. That was definitely fun although the crossing of the bridge was a very wet affair. Not exactly warm but definitely good for running. Now I am off to more training, increasing mileage on my weekend long runs and doing speedwork during the week. Hopefully I can get into a good enough shape that I can run a new PR. I am currently stuck at 3 hours 51 minutes which I ran 5 years ago. I am hoping to beat 3 hours 50 minutes and get as close as possible to 3 hours and 45 minutes. Wish me luck!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Faceball
I love this: http://www.faceball.org
What is it? According to their web site: "... at a deeper level it's a vehicle for the release of personal animosity, and the Shaming of the Weak." Funny!
What is it? According to their web site: "... at a deeper level it's a vehicle for the release of personal animosity, and the Shaming of the Weak." Funny!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Biodiesel -- my first filter change
The other day I went to a gas station (Valley Oil in Mountain View, CA) that sells pure Biodiesel, well B99, so virtually pure Biodiesel. Anyway, a little more expensive than the B20 from Rotten Robbie but it's environmentally even better. Now, when you switch to Biodiesel fuel filter clogging after a few tanks of Biodiesel is pretty common. So I went ahead and changed. Thanks to the Cincinnati TDI Club it was super simple. They posted a video online on how to change the fuel filter. Took a mere 15 minutes and everything was done. Car runs great and I am still doing something good for the environment.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
It's finished ...
... well almost, only missing the drawer handles. My first piece of furniture that I built out of a pile of wood.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Biodiesel, Part 2: Environmental Activism
I am on my second tank of B20 biodiesel now and things are working fine so far. Gas mileage increased a bit to an average of 43mpg but not sure whether that's because of the biodiesel or I was simply driving a bit more conservatively. Either way, I thought I'd buy a few stickers and boast a bit about the fact that I am doing something good for the environment.
On that note, the San Jose Mercury News had an interesting article about trying to do good for the environment. It mentioned California's efforts in trying to build up a greener fleet of vehicles. The chose to go with a bunch of vehicles that are capable of running on regular gasoline or Ethanol-gasoline blends like the Chevy/GMC Flexfuel vehicles. When those vehicles run on such blends they put out much less CO2 albeit at higher cost which the taxpayer has to pay for. However, one problem they did not consider is that there are virtually no fueling stations that carry such blends so that these Flexfuel vehicles are solely run on regular gasoline. Not only are they less efficient than the previous (smaller) fleet vehicles they now output more CO2, at higher cost. Talk about misguided environmental activism.
This is my problem with all these alternative fuels like ethanol, hydrogen and natural gas. The infrastructure simply isn't there yet and they require engine modifications or simply different engines altogether. Overall not very practical. Biodiesel on the other hand doesn't have these drawbacks. No engine modifications are required and if you are ever in an area where there is no Biodiesel available, you simply get regular diesel for one tank. The worst that can happen is that the fuel filter gets clogged which is not that tragic.
So, instead of wasting all that money on the new fleet that currently can't fulfill its potential, they should have invested that money into solar or by fuel efficient vehicles. Oh wait, that pretty much means they would have had to purchase Japanese cars instead of the American POS. Not sure what the reasons were but I very much hope that doing good for the environment from the government is hindered by who makes the car...
On that note, the San Jose Mercury News had an interesting article about trying to do good for the environment. It mentioned California's efforts in trying to build up a greener fleet of vehicles. The chose to go with a bunch of vehicles that are capable of running on regular gasoline or Ethanol-gasoline blends like the Chevy/GMC Flexfuel vehicles. When those vehicles run on such blends they put out much less CO2 albeit at higher cost which the taxpayer has to pay for. However, one problem they did not consider is that there are virtually no fueling stations that carry such blends so that these Flexfuel vehicles are solely run on regular gasoline. Not only are they less efficient than the previous (smaller) fleet vehicles they now output more CO2, at higher cost. Talk about misguided environmental activism.
This is my problem with all these alternative fuels like ethanol, hydrogen and natural gas. The infrastructure simply isn't there yet and they require engine modifications or simply different engines altogether. Overall not very practical. Biodiesel on the other hand doesn't have these drawbacks. No engine modifications are required and if you are ever in an area where there is no Biodiesel available, you simply get regular diesel for one tank. The worst that can happen is that the fuel filter gets clogged which is not that tragic.
So, instead of wasting all that money on the new fleet that currently can't fulfill its potential, they should have invested that money into solar or by fuel efficient vehicles. Oh wait, that pretty much means they would have had to purchase Japanese cars instead of the American POS. Not sure what the reasons were but I very much hope that doing good for the environment from the government is hindered by who makes the car...
Friday, July 06, 2007
My first piece of furniture ...
Over the past few months I have been taking a "furniture design and construction" class through Santa Clara Adult Education and this is the result:
It wasn't really much of a class but rather a weekly get together of people who wanted to build something and like power tools. By signing up for a class you get to use a machine shop with lots of tools that are also suitable for larger projects. Cost (~ $10 for a 3 hour session) is very affordable, downright cheap if you consider what it would cost to rent or even buy all the equipment. The instructors are laid back and help you out when you get stuck or things get tricky. Other than that you on your own on what you want to build. I built a side table that my wife liked and I worked off of a picture from a Pottery barn catalog. I improvised here and there but I think it came out ok for the first piece.
It wasn't really much of a class but rather a weekly get together of people who wanted to build something and like power tools. By signing up for a class you get to use a machine shop with lots of tools that are also suitable for larger projects. Cost (~ $10 for a 3 hour session) is very affordable, downright cheap if you consider what it would cost to rent or even buy all the equipment. The instructors are laid back and help you out when you get stuck or things get tricky. Other than that you on your own on what you want to build. I built a side table that my wife liked and I worked off of a picture from a Pottery barn catalog. I improvised here and there but I think it came out ok for the first piece.
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