Design Gone Sour

Maybe you're like me and saw the new Tropicana containers and thought, "are those from Sam's Club?"  They just looked so generic, even though they were channelling a Helvetica-like font (I am no good at identifying fonts), which some people would love.  But, the brand name is small and off to the side and the emphasis seems to be on "100% orange," which, last I checked, is just a color.  I am not sure how many people out there have been worried about their OJ being a different color than orange.

I kept seeing these cartons on the side of buses and thinking that that they were so odd looking, coming from a major company.  I don't buy orange juice, so in the end, it didn't really matter.  Apparently (according to the NYT and Slate Cultural Gabfest), it did matter to a great many people.  Moms were in an outrage, upset that they couldn't easily find their favorite brand, let alone tell the different pulp types apart.  Design snobs couldn't stand the cartons either.

The packaging, that was introduced in January, was so reviled that Tropicana will be going back to the old carton in March.

Was this a publicity stunt?  Are people going to try to buy as many of these "collecter's item cartons" before they are all gone?  Or will people buy Tropicana in droves once the old carton comes back?  I don't actually care that much, except bad design is just irritating to be around.

Cleaning House

It's the last day of the month and I've been anxious to get stuff done around here.  My room is still in need of love, as is the newspaper, but I did make progress today.

1) The kitchen is as clean as it gets.  I did the dump of all the random condiments.  I have a quick gag reflex for things like this, so I usually just throw all the containers in the trash so I'm done with it.  Today, I decided to be more true to my values and empty all the containers so I could recycle them.  It was successful, as I only threw up twice.

2) I found out that the food pantries around here will take all the paper bags that my roommates bring home.  I haven't cleansed us of them yet, but I am so excited they will get another use.  Yay!

3) I finally got a February playlist on iTunes for you.  You can listen to samples of what I've been listening to this month.  Well, that statement might be a stretch.  I've mostly been listening to the podcasts (of On Point, Backstory, Dirtbag Diaries, Slate, Running Times, TAL, Wait Wait, and Radio Lab if you're looking for some good stuff).  But, in those few hours when I've opted for music, this is the playlist.

4) I'm clearing my brain of all the posts I've meant to write over the past week.  I think there might be one more in me.  Sorry for the overload today.

Yowzah!

That's really the only word I have (Internet appropriate) for what I thought when I crossed the finish line today.  I had an interesting morning, the kind of morning you only have when you've gone crazy while training for a race.

I didn't hear my 3:30am alarm.  That's the alarm I set so I could get some calories in my system.  Instead, I woke up at 4:30, swore to myself (not proud of that), and ate some food.  I then tried to go back to sleep for an hour.  I think I feel asleep right before 5:30am, when my alarm went off again, signaling that I need to get up.

This was a rough week.  I didn't sleep as much as I should have and I had major, major shin trouble on every run.  So much that the shin trouble turned into knee trouble on Thursday, cutting my run very, very short.  So, I guess I'm injured, but it goes in and out, as all my injuries, so it's more tricky.  I didn't get to do one of my tempo workouts this week and so I was not very confident about this morning.

The plan: To run 2 laps of an 8K course (8K = 4.97 miles) plus another mile nice and easy and then race the local 8K, which is the first race in the local Grand Prix.  My workout today called for 16 miles with the last 30 minutes hard, so this is the plan I settled on.  The run did not start well.  My shin was screaming at me (that's how I describe my pain...in terms of the volume that a body part is communicating to me) within a mile.  I had to stop about once per mile and stretch out my shin before I kept running in some pain.  As I neared the end of the first lap, I was going to stop, but the pain was gone.  I ran the second lap with no pain.  This seems so weird to me.  I ran my extra mile, making it 11 pre-race and then got my number.  I ran the 11 miles just under 9 minute pace, which is what I've been doing on my easy runs, so I felt like everything was as it should be (how soon I forget the shin pain).  I had only about 15 minutes to get ready for the race, which was great.  There was no time to do anything but shed the fuel belt, change my shoes, change my shirt, pin my number on, and get to the start.  Oh, and at the start, I saw my podiatrist.  I cursed him under my breath for not caring enough to help me get better.

The start was bizarre.  There were a bunch of kids standing in front of me and everyone was packed tightly, so trying to stand in front of them was hard.  Then, all of the sudden, people were moving.  I didn't even hear a gun or anything.  I took off and hit my watch as I crossed the line.  I was anxious to get ahead of these kids, confident that I was going to beat them over five miles.  

First mile: 7:18.  What?  I don't think I'm supposed to run that fast, but then again, I felt okay.  I was working my tail off and breathing hard, but that's what I was supposed to do today.  But, I probably went out too fast.  

Second mile: 7:22.  Okay, so now I'm thinking the first mile wasn't really a fluke and I should try to keep this going.  This is when I start doing lots of math in my head to figure out where I'll finish and where I want to finish.

Third mile: 7:10.  Oh man, it would be awesome if this was a 5K, because I could have finished feeling great.  I knew that as soon as I hit that 3rd mile marker, things were going to get tough.  Indeed, mile four was challenging.  A few people passed me and the two women I was chasing (who were taunting me by casually chatting the whole time) were getting a bit further afield.

Fourth mile: 7:26.  Yup, it was a struggle, but not disaster.  I was giving everything I had to just keep going as strong as I started.

Last almost-mile: 7:13, finishing at 36:32 (watch time, not "gun" time).  Yowzah!  I really have no idea where this race came from today, but running another PR this month is pretty great.  I keep a list of my PRs as I accomplish them and it's amazing that I can remember every race, not every detail, but I can picture some part of the course that reminds me of that day and in most cases, I can picture the finish line.  I know that one day I might not remember these races, due to old age or too many races crowding my memory, but right now, it's so enjoyable to think about the fun I've had running over the years.

Oh yeah, and legit runner and 2004 Olympian Kate O'Neill won the women's race today.  The running competition out here is awesome and  I think the big guns will continue to come out for the Grand Prix.

I'd like to give a shout out to Brad Hudson, my "coach."  I'm following his book's training plan for Eugene and I'm pretty happy so far.  The only thing I need to do right now is back off a bit to save something for May and take care of my legs.  Ice bath will happen later today, after I nap.

Wet Bikes

Here are some shots from the Tour of California.  What a glorious day!  Look at all the people!  Look how fast the riders are going...a blur to my camera.  And there's a team called OUCH.  That cracks me up.  And you can see Lance a bit in one of these.

More Sightings

I feel like I'm a five year old, seeing things you just don't see every day.  My favorite sighting from the last week was a guy who was crossing El Camino (the main drag here...kind of like a nicer, slower version of Rte. 9).  He was wearing: running tights, black long sleeved shirt, crossing guard reflective vest, and.....NO SHOES!  What?  The benefits of barefoot running are great, but I would never set foot on any city street without shoes.  I don't even like to be barefoot in my driveway for fear of what's out there.  Menlo Park is by no means an unclean place, but it only takes one piece of glass to ruin your barefoot fun.

And, in a brief respite from the rain, I saw a full rainbow stretching across El Camino.  I had to pull over to the gas station to get a picture, which doesn't make for the best scenery.  But, it looks like Shell could be the pot of gold.  I'm not sure what to make of that.

Finally, cow eyeballs.  That's what the 9th graders were dissecting on Friday and I joined them, with many other math teachers to take part.  I'm less squeemish about this stuff than I used to be.  I was totally fine just touching the eyeball with my bare hands and helping kids take it apart.  Of course, that grossed a few of them out, but it was fun.  And cow's eyeballs are really cool.  They have an elliptical iris, unlike ours that is circular.  I wonder what that means about how cows see compared to us.  I also didn't know that our lens is like a 3-D ellipse or sphere, not something flat like a contact lens.  What a fun afternoon.  And then I scrubbed my hands clean.

Things I've Never Seen Before

A dead deer on my running route.  Sad.

Cyclists shoving a section of the newspaper up the front of their jerseys to protect them from the wind on a descent.  That was new for me.  I guess that I've mostly watched Le Tour, which is in warmer weather when cyclists are probably looking forward to the cooling descents.

And this:

I have now run 1000 miles with my little Nike+.  Of course, it's wholly inaccurate, so who knows how many miles I've actually run with it.  The other day, I ran 8 and it told me I ran just over 7.  Today, i ran 18, and it read 16.75.  That's not that cool, but it does give me a vague idea of my instantaneous pace, so I keep using it.  Apparently, I can now legitimately buy a shirt with this recognition on it.  I think that's a bit weird...showing off how much you've run with a device tracking every move, so I think I'll skip it and look forward to some race shirts coming up.

Night Running

It's been ages since I've run in the evening.  Well, maybe that's actually not true.  I think I ran on Sunday evenings last spring as I was trying to transition from running 3 miles as my long run to running 5 or 6 miles.  But from the fall of 2004 to the fall of 2006, I ran after work rather than before.  Those were the days when I got out of work at 2pm, got home by 4pm and could get a run in in the daylight no matter what time of year.

Today, my alarm went off at 4:30am and for the first time in...a very long time, I shut it off and decided that I needed more sleep.  And I was haunted by the pain in my left shin, which forced to me to shorten my Wednesday run considerably.  

So, today, I came home from work and put in the miles.  As much as I love my neighborhood, I think I love it even more in the evenings.  When I run in the mornings, it's also dark outside, but the houses are also dark.  At night, you can see in people's houses.  I feel like I've written about this before, and I don't mean to come across as a voyeur,  but I do love to see families gathered in their homes, spending time together.  I also like seeing how homes are decorated.  I really don't like seeing people's television lighting up the room.  And around here, most people have huge, bloody televisions, so as I run by, I can watch the news along with them.

My dream house: Kitchen at the front with big windows and living room or family room or whatever you call it in the back.  There are a few dream houses in my neighborhood that fit the bill on this.  The problem is they are probably over a million dollars, so I'll have to keep looking.

Beauty upon Beauty

It's not often that I find myself in awe of something's beauty, but today, some Internet videos were the thing that did it for me.  Rapha, a bicycle equipment and apparel company (very swank stuff), recently sent some of their riders to trace the Tour of California course.  They did this sometime in January (I was following the reports on a blog I like, which is written by a guy who rode in this "average" man's Tour).  They had a handful of riders, a crew, and a film guy.  The result, is beauty upon beauty.  The composition of the videos is just stunning and then to see these men powering themselves across my beautiful state gave me goosebumps.  And, you can see what the Tour would have looked like if it wasn't raining buckets day in and day out.

I know not everyone out there loves cycling (and I myself am some bizarre person who does more spectating than doing), but I encourage you to watch for the beauty of the art and the beautiful of the landscape.  Each day of the Tour, Rapha is posting another video.  Here is the first one.  If you like that, go to their website to see the series.



Rapha Rides The Tour of California from RAPHA on Vimeo.

The Daily Top One List

This is the Daily Top 1 for Why I Read Blogs:

1. Because you run across stuff like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_mammals

The first state alone was enough entertainment for me.  And then I read that Massachusetts has a state cat.  It's the Tabby Cat.  Was there a vote on that or just those Tabby Cat lobbyists again?

Hero Spotting

I really don't think that Lance's luster will ever tarnish in my eyes.  Here he is today on the course.  These pictures are from the good guys at Belgium Knee Warmers since mine didn't come out as good.  We were just as close.  The Tour (again, not Le Tour) was awesome.  It was not raining during the time we were outside for an hour and a half (despite it raining hard from 6:30am to 10:30 am).  Our timing was perfect all around.  We parked at 8am at the corner of Rtes. 35 and 84, were some of the first into Alice's restaurant for food and free wi-fi, and got a great view of the guys coming around the bent.  I wish I could have mingled with these guys, rather than just seeing them in a blur (Lance is the only one I could recognize because he was the only one with a yellow helmet).  This race has everyone who is anyone really and I love most of them...Hincapie (!), Leipheimer (!), Voigt, Horner, Sevilla, Basso, the Schlecks, Hushovd (Uff Da!), Jacques-Maynes, Freire, Vandevelde (!), Landis (?), O'Grady, Cavendish, Zabriskie, Sastre, Hamilton (?)...to name a few that have been my foci for the month of July for the past few years.  I am on cloud nine.

Today was just another great day of using the cowbell.  I love those days and I wish there were more of them.  And I had a fabulous 8 mile run: 2 miles easy, 2 x 10 minutes threshold at 8:05 pace with 2 minutes active recovery, 3 miles easy.  The last few minutes of the second threshold stint was tough, but I got through and felt great.  The only hiccup was that right at the end of the second threshold was the only hill on the course.  I walked up it...I was just spent, but I'm happily in a place where doing something like walking up a hill after a tough workout is totally okay.

Ahhh!  It's past my bedtime!