Long lost friends

Karen is alive and well!

2007 Mesa Turkey Trot

2,224 of my closest friends got together on Thanksgiving morning for the 38th annual Mesa Turkey Trot 10k race.

Pre-race:
Post-race:


Remind me to train for this race next year.

To all the Bunker's, Ray's, & Madsen's...see you on the starting line next year! (Melissa there has got to be a story behind your officially posted time??? You're a speed demon!)

It pays to count, pedometer study finds

CHICAGO (Reuters) - People who use a pedometer to measure how far they walk lose more weight, exercise more and have lower blood pressure than those who do not, researchers said on Tuesday…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/exercise_pedometers_dc;_ylt=AkIBuT3TeZ0mUpDp0K7I17gDW7oF

Check out my earlier post about my life in measured steps:

http://bag-o-richs.blogspot.com/2007/09/5000000-steps.html

Listening to podcasts at 2x normal speed

Here is an excerpt from an email that I recently wrote to my friend about how I listen to podcasts at faster-than-normal speeds...

"There are far more fascinating podcasts out there than I can possibly consume. I’ve switched over almost entirely to NPR podcasts in the car instead of live NPR. I do miss out on traffic and weather updates but I also get to skip all the crap happening in Iraq. And I’m pretty sure they are going to tell me it is going to be hot and sunny into infinity.

I use iTunes as my tool for finding and subscribing to podcasts but I have found that Windows Media Player will automatically grab what iTunes has pulled down (not everything, but most everything). Within WMP I use the speed control settings:

I usually listen at 1.4 or 1.5 normal speed but sometimes I do go as high as 2.0. After a little while you don’t notice that they are speaking fast. I usually listen to “Marketplace” in 15 minutes instead of the regular 30.

I REALLY wish I could do something similar with my iPod. Apple must have some proprietary agreement with Audible.com because as far as I know only audio books downloaded from Audible can use the “Faster” playback setting in the iPod (maybe audio books from iTunes as well, but I haven’t tried it). I don’t know if you can adjust the speed of everything in the Zune player, but if it can it would almost be a compelling enough reason for me to get one."

Throwing down the gauntlet: Casa Grande Duathlon

I'm reporting back on my earlier Throwing Down the Gauntlet post...

The Casa Grande Duathlon/Triathlon was my first multi-sport race after a 17 year hiatus. The bike route wasn’t marked very well at one of the turns so along with about 100 other people I did a 17 mile ride instead of the planned 10. Both sections of the run were cross-country style out in the desert -- which I liked.

All in all, a fun race. I'll do it again next year.

The Turkey Trot is in a couple of weeks and then the Anthem Sprint Triathlon to finish out the year. All are welcome to join the fun. Even Austin.

The Messiest Old Navy in America

On our recent trip to UT, Becky and I came across the messiest Old Navy in America.

One poor shopper got trapped in a clearance pile and was left for dead.

Global Warming and AZ

For those of you not paying attention it is already November. It was also over 90 degrees in metropolitan Phoenix today. Arizona is NOT the place to live on a planet that is getting warmer.

Nov, Dec, Jan are supposed to be the best months of the year to live in AZ. It is when we get the payoff for living in an oven in June, July, & Aug.

When will we get some relief?