TXU Energy Turkey Trot 5K

So this "running thing" isn't getting any less popular. This morning I was sitting behind a long line of cars waiting to exit the 610 freeway. We were all heading into the TXU Energy Turkey Trot and bunches of runners started leaving their cars (I hope they were passengers) and running down the off-ramp towards the start corral on Post Oak Boulevard.

As I'd find out from the public address announcer later, this year's event in the Uptown district had 13,000 registered. That's a lot more than I remembered from just a few years ago.

Anyway, those hurried souls were likely trying to make it to the starting gun of the 10K race. Fortunately, I had a bit more time to spare, because I was out for the more leisurely 5K that would start 30 minutes later. After needing almost all of that extra half hour to find a parking spot, I took off with the back of the pack along the streets surrounding The Galleria:

Mile 1 -- 11:41
Mile 2 -- 10:50
Mile 3 -- 9:57
Last .14 -- 1:18
Elapsed 5K time -- 33:48 per Garmin Forerunner 110

You're just going to have to trust my Forerunner time, as I opted to save five bucks by not getting a timing chip. With this type of race, there was no way I was threatening a PR today! It took about 10 minutes after the gun for me to reach the start line and after much non-tangential pathfinding, I think I finally got ahead of the packs of walkers around \the 2.99-mile point.

Now it's time for some football and family time. Happy Thanksgiving, and if you're thinking of running this event next year, plan on arriving an hour early!

Winded

Speaking of tweaks: It's becoming clear during this half marathon training season that I'm unable to keep up with my current pace group on long runs. We've been going out at roughly 11:20-11:30/mile, which didn't feel too fast at first, but as our distance has increased, by mid-run I would find myself uncomfortable with speaking in sentences -- failing the classic litmus test of Long Slow Distance pace.

It became painfully obvious last weekend, when we headed out for our "cutback" run of seven miles and I was feeling ill by mile two. The resulting really-I-got-up-before-dawn-for-this funk of exhaustion clung with me for the rest of the day. I'm sure the chill of 38F air that morning did no favors to this non-acclimated body either. (We've got daytime temps back in the 80s Fahrenheit as I type this now.)

I was kind of hoping that as my mileage base has increased, I'd also adjust to this pace. A few years ago I was doing long runs solidly in the elevens, so I don't think I was being unrealistic. But the elevens aren't right again for me (yet). So the new plan is to try to find another pace group in the program that moves something closer to 11:50-12:00/mile, so my long runs suck less -- literally.

Tweaked

After a week of tweak after tweak, I think I'm now finally satisfied with the way Houston Running Calendar -- my "side blog" -- looks. The most significant change was finding additional code to tighten up a lot of wasted white space in the gutters. (If anyone else needs the CSS answer to reducing padding in Blogger's Simple template, I found it on another blog -- thanks, Simple Blogger!).

The resulting layout pushes the advertising slots much closer to the edge, making more room for what everyone really comes for -- the race listings. Those listings get a bump up in text size, which may be appreciated by a certain segment of visitors.

And web visitors continue to come. I think half a million total pageviews by the end of this year is possible. Not too shabby for a linkblog. As always, community contributions are a big help. If you know of an organized run event happening within 60 miles of downtown that could use more publicity, send a link to their webpage to list@houstonrunningcalendar.com.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all, and if you want to make a last-minute plan for an area Turkey Trot tomorrow morning, I know this online reference you can check.....

More Android smartphones belong in a museum

Last week, the Houston Museum of Natural Science released a nifty little smartphone app that gives us more background text and images to go with the vast new Paleontology Hall that opened in the summer. The next time I stroll those exhibits, I look forward to having this guide in my hand. I recommend that everyone install it before their next museum visit.

If you can, that is.

While reading the app's Google Play page, I took notice of the operating system requirement -- Android 4.0.3 or above, a.k.a. "Ice Cream Sandwich." That statement took me aback because AT&T had only released Ice Cream Sandwich for my phone model, the Motorola Atrix 2, just the previous week, and this was for a phone that was purchased new this year. Only recently had I joined a small minority of Android users that could install the app.

At first I thought it was a bittersweet oversight on the part of HMNS's part to go to the trouble of reaching out to a limited audience. But then I suppose this only underlines the laggard manner with which the wireless carriers have been taking in regards to OS updates. The cynic in me says that this is a ploy to get customers to buy new handsets on a frequent basis. But it's even worse, because there are STILL brand new handsets that are being sold with Android 2.3, a.k.a. "Gingerbread,"

And these new phones are being unboxed in an environment where there's no assurances that they're not already obsolete. It's a real waste to see one-year-old devices being left behind. Consumers should start taking note of which manufacturers and wireless providers are most guilty of this behavior and spend their dollars elsewhere.

Most expensive trip to Burger King, ever.

I think it was when we got passed by the KPRC-TV Houston news truck near Lake Pontchartrain that it was made evident that our original vacation plans were getting blown away. While we were en route to Louisiana, the forecast track of Hurricane Issac was changed from a Florida landfall to a line that would bring the storm to meet us.

Arriving last Sunday evening in New Orleans, the city was already in shutdown mode. After checking into our hotel, we checked the surrounding blocks in search of dinner. At one point we thought we had walked into a still-open place, only to be told by the hostess that the restaurant was also closing early to allow employees to start hurricane preparations.

Figuring that there was no point in staying longer than necessary, we would be checking out of the hotel and leaving town the next morning. After travelling all the way to New Orleans, the lone attraction we enjoyed there was the neighborhood Burger King that we found still serving dinner that night.

Originally, we were supposed to be in New Orleans for most of the week, but instead we fast-forwarded to our second destination city of Baton Rouge, where we rode out the storm. Unlike Ike in 2008, which rumbled through Houston in the space of hours, Issac arrived and departed Louisiana like a loaded drunk taking his time to find the exit of a French Quarter bar. After 3-1/2 days indoors in Hunker Down Mode we were finally able to emerge to do a little sightseeing in the downtown area and watched the LSU football game from high atop Tiger Stadium this weekend before returning home.

I know most everyone says they "need a vacation after a vacation," but in this case, it's very, very true.

Summer drips away like softened mint chocolate chip down the inverted incline of a waffle cone

So how has summer been working for you? After being scorched and burned last year, the dam area has just finished draining after a really wet July. I feel like it's time for another bullet-point post to recap random stuff.

• Pittsburgh-based Cello Fury made a tour stop in Houston at the end of July and we got to enjoy a free performance at Market Squre. A trio of cellists backed by a drummer, Cello Fury's expressive sound spans that gap between chamber music and Headbangers Ball that you didn't even ask to be bridged. Their YouTube channel is well worth the visit.
• Last weekend the summer Olympics left us for another four years. Requiring a cable or satellite TV subscription turned the online offerings into a non-starter for me, and made NBC look like the old legacy media company that I guess they are. So among the garbage I had to scrap for the worthwhile moments on the network broadcast -- especially Meb Kefleghizi's fourth-place finish in the men's marathon. My gut feeling told me that he was the USA's best shot at a medal, and I was correct.
• We took a tour of the Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting. As a contributing member of KUHF, I finally got to see exactly where my dollars go, including the studio where The Front Row is recorded and the workday desks of news staffers like Carrie Feibel.. Our guide was Eric Ladau, whose voice I've heard on evening traffic reports. 
• My running mileage is on the upswing. This morning I hung on pretty well during our group run of five miles. The Aramco half is now less than five months away.
• I've been surprised that site traffic on Houston Running Calendar has merely leveled off during the summer when I thought it would nosedive. On August 1, the Facebook "fanpage" reached 500 Likes, which I think is a happy metric for something that isn't being actively marketed; people are searching for this stuff.
• My "must-see TV" right now is Breaking Bad. The conclusion of season 4 was so decisive that it could have easily served as a series finale. But I suppose the fans now get one last season to see exactly where "ever after" takes the characters. As counterweights to that heavy drama I've discovered Portlandia and The Guild on Netflix; both are comedy gold.

Now, if you'll pardon me, there's a carton of Breyers waiting for me in the freezer....

Singing the Kenwood Bluetooth blues

I think I can squeeze a  few more quality years out of my old designed-before-the-21st-century car. But I also felt that I couldn't spend them with a 20th century car stereo. So I decided to operate the audio system under the new management of a Kenwood KDC-BT752HD.

It's mostly been a blast. The HD Radio hype is finally a reality for me. For capable stations where the Kenwood can get  a strong enough signal for a digital signal lock, the sound quality improvement is very noticeable.  The USB port and Bluetooth connectivity means that I no longer need to tether my phone with an AUX cable to hear digital music.

If everything was perfect, then I might not have even been motivated to type up this blog. But it hasn't and I'm really posting this to possibly assist others that run into Bluetooth issues with this stereo. You see, a few times while paired with my phone, the audio has started stuttering. Last night, the pairing completely failed, to the point where the display gave an "HF ERROR 68" which the manual instructed me to remedy by performing a factory reset. But I had remembered reading a couple of reviews (versus many, many positive ones) on the Crutchfield website that alluded to some Bluetooth issues on this headunit model.

Well, I hope I've fixed the problem in a more permanent fashion, because it turns out that Kenwood has released a firmware update that is supposed to address Bluetooth pairing and Pandora stability issues. Oddly enough for the year 2012, the firmware can only be updated via a file burned to CD-R, and not a USB flash drive. Luckily, I still had a few of those around, and I followed the instructions to the letter, including the part about idling the engine while parked during the upgrade. The instructions say that it may take up to 15 minutes, and I got my "COMPLETE" message after about 12. Checking the firmware version on the display again confirmed that the device updated from firmware version 3.00 to version 3.01.

If I never post about this again, then it's safe to assume everything's peachy. If you've come here via some sort of search engine link, then I hope I've pointed you in the right direction in addressing your Bluetooth issues.

Catching Up: Girls On The Run, Flash Mobs, Lottery, etc.

For the first time in eight years, I did not take part in any of the area races on Independence Day. I was up a little on the late side as I watched my first MLS game on Tuesday night at the Houston Dynamo's new downtown stadium. For all the wonderful crowd buzz that abounded in boisterous shades of orange, it felt like nothing really happened as we all went home after a nil-nil conclusion in the match against the Chicago Fire.

But to resume my running story here on the upper reaches of Buffalo Bayou, there's been a little more than nothing as I've been trying to keep the fitness fires lit with some fun runs close to home. It's just that I hadn't felt motivated to blog much about them. In late May, the Greater Houston Girls On The Run organization held their annual fundraiser 5K and I rolled up the neighborhood concrete course in about 32 minutes. Then last month, I tried something new as Sun and Ski Sports put together a weekly Flash Mob Race Series. I made a couple of the races. Each course was roughly 3 miles or even less, but on the cross-country terrain of Terry Hershey Park and George Bush Park. Combining the late p.m. heat and the off-road footing meant slow times but fun times. At least I came away with a copy of Jason Robillard's The Barefoot Running Book as a door prize. From what I read online, there may be more Flash Mob madness yet to come.

And finally, it's already time to start aiming the training towards winter goal races. I successfully made it through the lottery and registration process for the 2013 Aramco Houston Half Marathon. Unlike the Independence Day runs, my Houston Marathon weekend participation streak is a meaningful one I'd like to keep rolling.

Running for the Arts

Ah, another tardy race report blog post.

Last Saturday, April 28, I ran the Spring Branch ISD fundraiser Running for the Arts. This 5K, now in its 20th year, was staged out of Memorial City Mall.

The splits:
Mile 1 -- 9:40
Mile 2 -- 9:38
Mile 3 -- 10:31
Last .17 -- 1:44
5K Elapsed Time -- 31:05 (per Garmin Forerunner 110)

Thanks to the large number of students, the first mile had a little extra fun -- there's nothing like being among hundreds of giddy kids that are uninterested in keeping a steady pace or following a tangent. But somehow they managed to not get crushed by me.

The late spring has really been feeling more like early summer, so the best part of the morning had to be the post-run snowcone.

Alex's 5K

Happy Easter!

I started the holiday weekend at Bear Creek Park, where the Bayou City Road Runners hosted their second annual Alex's 5K on Friday evening. This race benefited two autism-related charities, Avondale House and Autism Speaks.

The course consisted of two circuits of a loop road that connects to the various picnic areas on the park's west side, and the tree shade was most welcome during this rather warm sunset race. In a kooky coincidence, I clocked the same elapsed time for this 5K as I did last week.

The splits:
Mile 1 -- 9:24
Mile 2 -- 9:40
Mile 3 -- 9:46
Last .18 -- 1:41
5K Elapsed Time -- 30:31 (per Garmin Forerunner 110)

Being an Energy Corridor denizen, I did enjoy getting a rare local Friday night race opportunity. I even took advantage of the "must be present to win" clause to score one of the door prizes at the end of the night. My only real complaint is that the timing company ran out of chips for walk-up registrants. Let's hope they noted this year's turnout and come better supplied next year.